Always Chasing Safety
by BellaGiornata
Summary: Sequel to Until the Sun Doesn't Rise: Once again everything is a mess; Castiel is no longer a help, Sam has lost his mind, and now there's the threat of the leviathan. With everything falling apart, is there a chance in hell to put things right? Sam/OC
1. Chapter 1

**This is the first chapter to the sequel to 'Until the Sun Doesn't Rise'. If you haven't read that, you may want to first.**

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><p>"You humans are such stupid things."<p>

The demon crossed the threshold into the house with ease, his tall figure briefly filling the doorway. Underneath him the salt line lay broken and useless.

"I swear, those pathetic excuses you've hunted before make all of us out to appear dumb. There are ways to get around your silly defenses."

The smirk on his lips paired with those black eyes was disturbing. Even more so was the way he weaved past all of the hidden devil traps as he crossed the room, his eyes never leaving mine. He was a predator expertly stalking his prey and he moved as if he was one step ahead of me.

"Am I making you nervous?" he asked with great satisfaction as he took in my appearance.

I began backing away slowly, hoping I could make my way back into my bedroom where my knife was hidden under my pillow. Dumb mistake not taking it with me everywhere. Right now it was my last shot at survival seeing as I hadn't informed the rest of the household about Dean's warning, not wanting to worry everyone. And now they were all gone on hunts, and I was left alone.

"What do you want?" I asked a little breathlessly.

Figuring if I kept him talking, maybe I could give myself more time to think. Or find a way to get to my knife without getting myself killed first.

He chuckled, clearly enjoying himself. "I'm just here for you. You're the perfect leverage."

"Perfect leverage for what?" I asked curiously despite myself.

"I'm glad you asked!" he exclaimed quite enthusiastically. "For Sammy boy. Ah, yes, you seem shocked that we demons are privy to idle human relationships. But come on, Sam Winchester? As long as he loves you, you'll always be his downfall. It's nothing personal, love."

My heart was racing listening to him talk. I knew the two of us getting involved was dangerous, but we'd been in situations like this plenty of times before. We were all each other's weaknesses, but we always made it out alive in the end. I just had to keep my head clear and think straight. I could figure this out.

The demon's head turned slowly to the side as he watched me cautiously backing away. An amused expression was on his face; his eyes still that frightening, endless black.

"I see the wheels turning in that pretty little head of yours," he said eyeing me. "I must admit, Sam sure can pick them."

I tried very hard to ignore the meaning behind that. Glancing over my shoulder I realized I was just at the entrance to the hallway. My bedroom was just feet away.

"Why do you need me for leverage?" I asked, trying to keep him talking.

He narrowed his eyes at me briefly, obviously contemplating what I was up to and how much he should really tell me. In a matter of moments he was back to his original demeanor.

"Crowley needs you actually, I'm just the delivery boy," he responded, though the way he said it made it sound like he wasn't too happy about it.

Chewing my lip I figured I'd take a stab in the dark on that reading and run with it. "You don't seem to be the type of guy who works well with others. Or for others, for that matter."

"I don't. I would crush Crowley if I could, that little flea. Arrogant and annoying."

"So why follow his orders?" I pried.

He smiled devilishly at me and wagged a finger at me like one might do when scolding a child. "I see what you're up to. I'm not just going to turn tail and leave you here."

"What is it he needs me for anyway?" I asked, finally feeling the doorframe of my bedroom beneath my fingertips.

Casually stalking forward at the same pace, the demon side-stepped yet another devils trap before answering.

"He needs Sam for a vessel, and if he threatens to torture you with countless horrors, well, Sam is more likely to bend and break," the demon responded with a simple shrug.

My mouth dropped a little and I forgot what I had been trying to do for a moment. Why would Crowley need Sam for a vessel?

"So you haven't been kept in the loop I see."

He grinned when my expression seemed to confirm this.

"Oh those little Winchesters."

The demon took two quick strides in my moment of hesitation. He was standing so close to me now that I was pressing my back up against the wall in attempts to make some space between us. His face was in front of mine in moments, the black pits that were supposed to be eyes were blocking my vision of everything else.

"It's always been about the souls. You're little BFF Castiel needed the extra juice for his little war up in heaven," he told me, his nose wrinkling up in disgust as he continued on, "and Crowley needs them to keep his place as the King of Hell."

Unable to hold the gaze I turned my head quickly to the side. "What does this have to do with me?"

He chuckled and put a finger under my chin, pulling my face back to his. "Eve wasn't too happy about how the pair teamed up and started scheming on taking the souls from purgatory, so then she came here and decided to start turning you stupid humans into her children." He paused to watch me cringe at the idea. "But now that your little Winchester pals kindly enough took her out of the picture, Crowley and Castiel can finish their little project and take all those souls for their own."

"No, Castiel wouldn't be working with Crowley. He would never do that," I said adamantly.

"Angels don't exactly make easy mistakes like burning the wrong bones of a dangerous demon. You really going to sit there and think he didn't do that on purpose?"

I couldn't comprehend all of that. Why would Castiel, an _angel_, ever stoop to working with a demon?

"Mind boggling, isn't it?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"If that's all even true, what does he need Sam as a vessel for anyway?"

"Sam is…" he paused a moment and shook his head, "_was_ Lucifer's vessel. That makes him stronger than just any plain old meat suit. With all of those souls being held in one place, it would tear apart the body of just anyone. Something I don't think your little angel friend is aware of."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

He shrugged casually, pulling away from me a little bit. "I could care less what happens, as long as I'm still alive and out of hell."

I slowly reached my hand into my sweatshirt pocket, trying to keep my face expressionless as I did so.

"You really think I'm that stupid?" the demon asked me as he eyed my hand in the pocket.

His expression changed instantly to something darker. He ripped my hand from inside the pocket and threw me partway down the hallway. My head bounced off the wall before I crumpled up onto the floor. I was disoriented as I laid there, one hand to my head, the other frantically searching for the holy water that was in my pocket. The demon raced across the distance between us in no time and ripped my hand out again before pulling out the bottle himself.

"You're just too predictable," he told me as he opened the bottle and poured it out on the floor. "I'm not leaving here without you. Now you have one simple choice to make. You can come without a fight, or I'll drag you, kicking and screaming. So what'll it be? Door number one or door number two?" A twisted smile crossed his dry, cracked lips. "Personally, the latter is my favorite of the two."

Gripping the doorframe to the bathroom beside me, I carefully got back up onto my feet as he waited patiently for an answer. I didn't give him one, I just attempted to sprint past him towards my bedroom. He seemed to have been taken by surprise by that, and the growl that was emitted behind me made my skin crawl.

I didn't make it far into my room before he latched on to my wrist, his nails digging firmly into my skin. Pulling me back into his body he leaned down towards my ear and I could feel his breath on my skin when he spoke next.

"Let's see what's waiting for you behind door number two, then."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews from SomebodyWhoCares and xxjempa1112luvSPNxx! Enjoy chapter 2!**

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><p>My hands had long since gone numb. The pitch black of the trunk of the car prevented me from being able to make out my surroundings, not that I had much. I'd been lying in here for quite some time but without a clock I wasn't exactly sure just how long. I assumed it might have been a couple hours.<p>

The demon seemed to enjoy driving roughly. He was taking corners too sharp which caused me to hit my head pretty hard each time. I was sure I had a bruise somewhere from it.

Originally it took me a little while to figure out where I was when I had come to. He had hit my head pretty hard against the side of the car and knocked me unconscious so when I woke up, hands bound behind my back, in total darkness, I had been panicking. Eventually the cramped space and the movement gave it away. At first I had tried kicking the trunk lid, but when that didn't do anything, I had an idea to kick the backseats behind me. But when I realized that wouldn't help me to roll into the backseat right where he could see me and prevent my escape, I quickly stopped fighting. Without the use of my hands, I was trapped.

If I listened hard enough I could make out the sounds of faint jazz music playing over the stereo in the car. That only made me feel even more uncomfortable and uneasy. Once in awhile when he heard me hitting against the side of the trunk he would let out a low laugh. Every time he did I just imagined myself jamming my knife slowly into his heart. But that knife was still back at the house under my pillow.

When we finally came to a stop, my mind started racing. Had we finally reached wherever Crowley was hiding out? What was going to happen to me? Or to the guys? Were they alright? Did they even know I had been abducted?

The car sat idle with me in the trunk for what felt like a few minutes and I really forced my brain to think. The group of them had went on a hunt just a few hours south in Illinois. It was just to track down a nest of vampires, and if that's all it had been, then they easily could have been back by now. Would they have tried to call my phone? Maybe they would have tried to track it with GPS and find me. But would they be able to take this demon on? I knew for a fact they weren't usually hunting demons, they stuck to the typical monsters that they caught wind of. Would they even know to come prepared?

Maybe they would call Sam or Dean or Bobby. I had left their numbers with Beth awhile back. They'd have to know something was wrong when they got back from their hunt and saw my car was there but I wasn't. Especially if I wasn't answering my phone. I knew those three could handle this guy without a doubt, but I was pretty sure they had to be quite a few states away. Even if they were aware of my abduction though, I don't think they'd get me in time before I was delivered to Crowley, and then Sam would be delivered straight to Crowley's doorstep.

Hoping for any kind of help wasn't going to do me any good. I had to find a way out of this myself—I didn't have any other choice.

The trunk lid lifted open suddenly and I was met with the same face, except this time his eyes were a vibrant green. They were the eyes of the man he was possessing, and briefly I wondered if the guy was alive in there watching everything or if the demon was possessing a corpse. The thought sent shivers down my spine.

"You know what? This is definitely a Kodak moment," he said, that demented grin on his face. He reached into the pocket of the jeans his meat suit had on and pulled out my cell phone he'd taken off of me earlier. He lifted it up and said "Say cheese!" in a very light hearted manner. "You could start a new trend on Facebook with photos like these. If you had a Facebook of course."

Roughly grabbing me by the shoulder he dragged me from the trunk, not even bothering to help me right myself as he pulled me onto my feet. Clumsily I fell against the back of the car. I had been curled up in that uncomfortably small trunk for who knew how long and now my legs were cramped up and refusing to work right.

"I could help get the blood flowing back in those legs of yours," he said in a deep voice, his eyes quickly flashing to black then back to green.

Feeling sick at the idea, I stumbled forward and tried to stand up straight. He slammed the trunk shut and told me to follow him. Not wanting my head slammed against the car again, especially since it was already pounding, I did as he told me to.

Deciding to take in my surroundings and figure out where I was, I began searching around and taking everything in out of the corner of my eyes. It was a dingy motel and it was dark outside. Judging by the license plates on a couple of cars scattered around the parking lot I assumed we were in Indiana now. The parking lot didn't appear to be too well lit. Most of the lights seemed to be out and it looked like we were around the back of the building. The lobby where people checked in had to be back around the front, so most likely no one saw me crawling out of the trunk. Not that that would be helpful. None of them or even the police would be able to take down a demon.

I followed him up the metal stairs, avoiding his gaze whenever he'd glance over his shoulder to make sure I wasn't up to anything. We walked in silence, which surprised me that he wasn't making some smartass remark or other. When we finally reached room number 27, he just turned around and shoved me inside. I stumbled forward and tried to catch my balance before I fell.

"Don't get too comfortable," he said from behind me. "We're only here for a few minutes. You try anything and I'll break your legs. Trust me, Crowley doesn't need them."

Awkwardly I crossed the room and slumped into a chair in the back of the room. I kept my eyes on the floor as he began digging around the room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him pull out a goblet. Instantly I recognized it along with the horrifying, grotesque faces that line the outside of it. My heart started racing. I had seen demons use those before, and they always needed fresh blood to make them work. Fresh human blood.

And I was the only one who fit the description sitting in the room.

He laughed when he turned his attention to me. "You know what this is I presume? So you know what I need."

He produced a knife from inside of his jacket and held it in front of him, rolling it back and forth in his right hand. The light kept glinting off of it every time he did.

"As much as I'd love to just slit your throat and be done with you, that would defeat the purpose of all the trouble I've gone through. So stop shaking in that chair, you're not dying." He smirked at me from across the room. "Yet."

Crossing the gap between us, I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise. He placed the goblet down on the table beside me and I shrank from it instinctively. There was dried blood in places on it, and the terrifying faces seemed to be staring at me, forever set with their mouths open in mid-scream.

Reaching out, he grabbed me by my hair and painfully lifted my head up so that I was looking him in the face. He was pulling so hard that I thought he was going to rip out the entire chunk straight from my scalp.

"You know, you really are quite pretty for such a stupid beast," he told me, still rolling the knife back and forth in his hand.

I stiffened at his words and felt my body go cold all over. Laughing at my reaction and still holding my hair, he pulled my face closer towards his. His eyes switched back to the unnatural black.

"Sammy boy wouldn't mind if we had a little fun, would he? I mean after all, he did kick you off that hunt and told you to get lost. And what about that time he fucked you and left you stranded in that motel?" He paused and took in my expression. "Oh but wait, that was soulless Sammy?" A deep rumble of a laugh came from his throat. "But deep down you still know it was him."

"Shut up," I said hoarsely, my voice just above a whisper. I could feel the tears behind my eyes remembering that exact memory. I wouldn't let this demon get to me.

He laughed somewhat manically at me. "Still stings does it!" He leaned forward again, and his dry and peeling lips were right in front of my face for the second time. "He can't help you now, darling. It's just you," he said in a quiet tone, reaching his hand forward and slowly sliding the knife down my cheek, cutting into my skin and drawing blood as he did so, "and me."


	3. Chapter 3

**IDon'tHaveAMustache and ****SomebodyWhoCares thank you for the reviews! I was going to post this chapter late tonite or tomorrow but after reading them I figured I'd just post the chapter now. Enjoy!**

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><p>"You're quite the buzzkill, aren't you?"<p>

I glared back at his black eyes. If only looks could kill.

He chuckled. "You look so cute when you get all worked up."

Roughly grabbing me by the chin he pulled my face to his so our lips were touching. I kept my mouth firmly closed and I fought his death grip on my chin throughout the entire kiss. When he pulled back there was an amused glint in his eye.

"Aww sugar, don't be like that," he cooed, leaning forward and licking my cheek before removing his hand from my face.

"You're disgusting," I growled.

"And you're not exactly in the best place to be trying to hurt my feelings," he said in his oddly cheerful tone.

"I'm pretty sure you have none," I deadpanned, trying to keep my face as far away from him as he reached behind me and unbound my wrists.

"Ouch, that one cut like a _knife_."

Pain exploded from my wrist as he slid the knife along it. Blood was rushing out and he quickly grabbed my arm and held it over the goblet. As my blood flowed into the disgusting object, a sadistic smile of pure satisfaction marked his lips.

The metallic scent of my own blood was filling my nostrils and making me nauseous. I was getting lightheaded the longer he stood there draining my wrist, but all I could focus on was the fact that my hands were unbound.

"I'll fix that up after I make this important call. You just sit tight and don't bleed out all over the place. It already looks gloomy enough in here without your corpse."

He tossed my hand back into my lap where it still continued to bleed. I had thought he needed more blood than he actually took to make that spell work, but I guessed they only filled the goblet out of some sick pleasure than actual necessity.

I was surprised when I saw him walk into the other room and partially shut the door behind him. I could make out some words in Latin coming from him.

I stopped listening the moment I heard him start a one-sided conversation. I knew I didn't have much longer and this was probably going to be the only opportunity I would get.

Cradling my slit wrist to my chest, I stood up as quick as I could. I stole my phone from off the bed and shoved it into my pocket. The moment I heard the demon raise his voice in anger I knew I needed to make a break for it. He would be distracted now that they were having an argument and I was going to use that to my advantage.

Tiptoeing as quietly as I could I passed the bathroom where he was.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!" the demon growled venomously.

Frightened at his new disposition, I quickly shortened the distance between me and the exit. Placing my hand gingerly on the doorknob, I turned it slowly and carefully hoping to not make a noise. I was grateful the door opened soundlessly as I pushed it outward and very carefully I slipped through the crack. Just as slowly as I opened the door, I pressed it shut behind me.

The moment I was outside with the door shut behind me my heart started racing. Trying to keep myself thinking clearly, I focused on my next course of action. I needed to hotwire one of these cars. If I took the one he'd brought me in he'd know what car to look for, and that seemed stupid.

Rushing down the stairs still trying to keep as quiet as I could, I spotted a very plain car that would blend in easily with traffic. Keeping my bloodied arm pressed up against my chest I quickly made my way over to it. Seeing as it was an older model that the owner must have assumed no one would want, the door was unlocked much to my great delight. That saved me so much extra time.

I jumped inside and locked the door, even though I knew that wouldn't really stop a demon. Ducking under the steering wheel I ripped down the wires I'd need to hotwire the car. Things were starting to get a little fuzzy with the amount of blood I was losing, but I didn't have a moment right now to patch up the wound. I had to get on the road and put a couple miles between myself and here before I could stop and fix myself up.

The moment the car rumbled to life I threw it in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot. Out of the rearview mirror I saw the demon hadn't even noticed I'd left yet. I had a head start and that would make it so much harder for him to find me.

Pulling out onto the main road I just took a left, not even sure which way to go. I drove for about a couple minutes, my foot slamming on the gas, before I had to stop. My shirt was covered in blood now. I pulled over into the first empty parking lot I could find and quickly parked the car. Without a moment's hesitation I did my best at ripping off strips from my shirt to bandage my arm and stop the bleeding.

I was still feeling dangerously lightheaded and I knew I couldn't keep driving when I had finished bandaging myself. I wasn't really sure what to do next, I was having a horrible time trying to think straight.

Digging my cell phone out of my pocket I speed dialed Beth's number. She picked up on the first ring.

"We have been trying to call you for hours!" Beth spoke frantically. "Where are you? Why weren't you answering me?"

Something outside of the car caught my eye. There was some kind of movement, but I couldn't see what it was in the darkness.

"Dean warned me about something and I didn't tell you guys because I didn't want to worry you all," I admitted, keeping my eyes focused outside the car.

"So you stayed here by yourself?" she shouted. "Where are you? Are you alright?"

"I was taken by some demon. He said Crowley wanted me," I told her. "I think I'm in Indiana."

"We're coming to get you. If we speed we can probably get there in a couple hours. I'll have Matt find your location with your phone's GPS. You going to be okay in the meantime? Are you somewhere safe?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "The demon, he needed my blood for a spell. I'm sure I'll be fine but I don't think I can drive anymore. I'm too tired and I feel like I'm going to pass out."

My heart dropped when I saw a figure walking out of the line of trees. It wasn't until he got closer until I recognized who it was.

Crowley in the flesh. And surprisingly he was alone.

"Beth, stay put. Call Dean, tell him what I told you," I demanded.

"What?" She asked, "We can't just-"

"Just do it! Right now!" I yelled, cutting her off.

I hung up the phone and turned to see him standing right outside the driver's side door now, just watching me.

"You planning on unlocking the door?" he asked me, eyebrows raised as if I was being rude. "We need to have a little chat, you and I."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you all all so much for the reviews! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! I've been crazy busy the last month and some! I'm a full time college student and I work a part time job and also co-own a photography business that's been taking up quite some time lately, so that's why I haven't been updating. But I'll try to get a part 5 up as soon as I can! Sorry for the wait!**

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><p>"You really think a locked door is going to stop me?" Crowley asked me from the other side of the window.<p>

I looked around the car for anything I could use as a weapon, but I couldn't find anything and the movement was making me dizzy.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Crowley threw out.

Turning back to him, I shot him a questioning look. "Why should I believe that?"

He shrugged deeply in response. "Because I'm a man of my word, how's that?"

"You're a demon."

"Yes, thank you for that excellent observation. As much as I'd love to stand here letting you regale me with your fantastic wit, I'd rather you step out of that car."

I was defenseless, alone, and entirely lightheaded. I didn't even stand a chance against Crowley right now like this, I wasn't going to lie to myself about that.

Reluctantly I gave in. I was too tired and too weak to do anything else. Swinging the car door open, I stepped out. Crowley shut the door behind me.

"I'm not going to let you use me for leverage with Sam," I told him before he'd even said anything.

An empty smile crossed his lips. "No, I don't suppose you would. I see that little waste of life demon didn't know how to keep his mouth shut, either."

"He doesn't seem to like you much," I told him. "You must not be doing a good enough job keeping them in line. Do you coddle them, Crowley?"

Just because I wasn't going to fight him didn't mean I was going to play nice.

"You think you're quite funny don't you? Bunch of laughs, yes. But I do have to correct you on one tiny thing. He _didn't_ like me very much is more of the right way to phrase it. He's not exactly among the living anymore."

I stared at him blankly, not sure if I believed him. Why would he have killed the demon? Not that I was upset about the news, but it made no sense.

Crowley clasped his hands in front of him, which reminded me much of a business man with the way he was dressed so nicely.

"There's been a change in plans, you see. And to save my skin, so to speak, I need to be rid of you."

I raised a brow at him now. There had to be a catch.

"You're just going to let me go?" I asked him.

"Yes because you see, I no longer have the previous arrangement I was counting on. So in turn, I no longer need you for leverage, because I no longer have a use for your precious Sam."

Narrowing my eyes at him I asked him what he meant.

"It's all about self-preservation. But Castiel has gone postal and destroyed the deal he made with me, the one I'm sure your companion for the last few hours more than likely discussed with you, leaving me with no souls from purgatory. Ergo, I don't need a new vessel."

"And if you keep me, Sam and Dean will hunt you down and kill you," I said slowly, piecing everything together finally.

"Bingo! So I need to get rid of you as fast as I possibly can," Crowley stated simply.

"And what do you have in—what are you doing?"

Crowley was now doubled over holding his stomach like he was about to be sick. Could demons even get sick?

"The Winchesters know you're with me, don't they?" he wheezed out between sharp gasps.

"I told them, yes," I half-lied. Technically Beth had told them for me, but I didn't want her getting involved.

"It appears they're doing a-a summoning spell," Crowley said with great effort.

Whatever the brothers were doing, it appeared to be causing him pain. Which was completely fine by me until he grabbed my arm, thankfully not the one I'd just bandaged up, so hard that I thought it would leave a mark.

"What are you doing?" I asked him nervously, trying to pry his hands off of me.

"I'm not going alone," he gasped out, "that'd be too-"

But I never found out what he thought it would be. One moment we were standing in an empty parking lot next to the stolen car, and the next we were in Bobby's basement, standing in the middle of a devils trap.

Crowley immediately let go of my arm and I fell forward not expecting that. Sam caught me and for a moment our eyes met. He was staring at me with great amounts of concern before his eyes began surveying the state I was in.

"Are you alright?" he asked me, his hands still holding me by the shoulders.

I nodded my head weakly, glad this whole thing was about to be over.

"I am so sorry," Sam whispered, leaning down and pulling me gently into a hug.

Over his shoulder I saw Bobby and Dean's eyes on us, matching looks of concern.

"You alright, squirt?" Dean called over to me.

"Yeah," I answered as Sam pulled away from me, "I'm fine. Why didn't you tell me what was going on?"

"We figured maybe you'd be safer if you didn't know. I guess that actually made things worse," Dean admitted.

"So what the hell is going on?" I asked.

Crowley cleared his throat from the other end of the room, catching everyone's attention.

"I'm still here, you know," he said, rocking back and forth on his heels. "And I'm pretty sure my new boss wouldn't appreciate this elongated visit."

"New boss?" I asked, confused.

"You mean Cas?" Dean asked the demon, ignoring my question.

"Precisely."

"Whoa, hang on. What is going on?" I asked, entirely confused.

"Castiel took all those souls from purgatory I mentioned," Crowley said, surprising me by being the one to answer my question, "and is now God."

"That's insane, he can't be God. Only God is God…right?"

"Wrong. Kind of," Crowley answered me. "He isn't exactly God, not the real one. But with all that mojo, he's just as powerful. And I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate me being here conspiring with his favorite monkeys." Crowley turned his head to the side a bit, a quirky grin on his face before he added, somewhat as an afterthought, "We are conspiring, right?"

"No, we just want you to stand there and look pretty," Bobby growled.

Sam must have disappeared at some point without me noticing, because he had a first aid kit that I knew was upstairs in Bobby's kitchen in his hands. He smiled weakly at me before silently ushering me into a chair and taking off my make-shift bandage from my arm. I tried not to pay attention to his warm hand holding my hand on his knee or the way his fingers kept brushing my skin as he worked on cleaning and dressing my cut, but the way my stomach kept doing somersaults made it nearly impossible.

"I need a spell from you," I heard Dean tell Crowley when I managed to tune back in.

"And why should I give you that?" Crowley answered, crossing his arms and looking smug.

"Because you kidnapped part of my family and I'm sure it wasn't to take her to Disneyworld," Dean spat, a vein in his forehead pulsing.

I felt touched at him referring to me as family. I knew we were close, but that was the first time he had ever said anything like that before.

"I'll remember to keep that in mind for next time," Crowley said in a curious tone that caught my attention.

I glanced over at him and saw him giving me a strange look.

Dean's face went dark instantly. "There won't be a next time."

Crowley's gaze lingered on me a moment longer, that same odd expression on his face, before he glanced back at Dean with a shrug, his normal demeanor back in place.

"So what is it you need from me then?" Crowley asked, seeming suddenly ready to help.

Dean eyed him skeptically a moment after such a quick change of heart before answering.

"A spell to bind Death."


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the reviews SomebodyWhoCares and XxHunnieLovexX! Had a chance to write this one up last night and figured I'd post it today, enjoy!**

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><p>"Enslave Death?" Crowley asked. He was staring at Dean like he'd suddenly lost his mind.<p>

I was beginning to wonder that myself.

"Lucifer did it," Dean remarked haughtily.

"That's Lucifer!" Crowley exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air.

"So?" Sam spoke up beside me, no longer preoccupied with fixing up my cut. "A spell's a spell."

Crowley looked over at me with an almost pleading look. "You're not an idiot are you? You see my point?"

I bit my lip in silence. I agreed with Crowley, but I didn't really want to admit that out loud. Or agree with a demon in general, especially one that had just had me kidnapped.

When he got no response from me he turned back to the guys who were now all stoney-faced with their arms crossed over their chests.

"You idiots really think you can handle that kind of horsepower? You're all delusional!" Crowley shouted in earnest.

"Death is the only other player on the board who can take out Castiel. We don't have another option," Dean reasoned.

In a slow, warning tone, as if he was talking to a child, Crowley responded, "They'll both mash us like peas."

Dean only responded with a grunt.

"Why should I help on a suicide mission?" he added on angrily.

Determined and still quite furious with the demon himself, Bobby stepped forward to the edge of the devil's trap so he was right up in Crowley's face.

"You really want Cas running the universe?" Bobby questioned in a severe tone.

The demon stood there for a moment in silent contemplation of that very concept. It was obvious he wasn't fond of the idea of working under some blasphemous angel.

"Fine," he said with some reluctance, "I'll mail you the damn spell. Overnight delivery, my treat. Are we through?"

Eyeing Crowley warily, Dean assented before smudging the devils trap with the toe of his shoe. Crowley shot me the briefest of looks before vanishing entirely. With him finally out of sight and myself safely back with the guys, I exhaled a deep sigh of relief, feeling as if I could finally relax for the first time in awhile.

Dean stood for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes tightly shut. Bobby was next to him rubbing a hand over his face looking more tired than he had when I first showed up.

"How are you feeling?" Sam directed to me after a moment's silence.

This question seemed to catch everyone's attention in the room and suddenly all eyes were on me. I glanced down at my wrist now freshly bandaged with a real bandage thanks to Sam. There was just a little smudge of pink staining it, meaning the bleeding had stopped finally.

"I'm fine, just tired," I answered him. "And a little hungry."

Dean shot me a half smile at the mention of hunger, apparently feeling the same himself. He promised to rush out to pick up some food since they hadn't been at Bobby's long and all he had in stock was liquor.

"I think I'm going to clean myself up," I announced to Bobby and Sam after Dean had made his way up the stairs and out of the basement. "I just…feel dirty," I said, avoiding glancing at Sam as I did.

"Sure, kid," Bobby said, extending a hand and helping me up from the chair.

Without delay, I made my way up the stairs, keeping my hand on the railing as I did so. Sam and Bobby were both climbing the stairs up after me. As I made my way up the stairs to the second floor just in the other room, I heard the TV turn on. When I heard footsteps paired with mine, I glanced over my shoulder to see Sam, who met my glance with a sheepish smile.

Bobby remained downstairs watching the news, most likely for any trace of supernatural happenings, while Sam followed me into the room we always shared.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, he tried to catch my attention before I continued on into the bathroom. I spun around and raised a brow at him questioningly, waiting for him to speak.

"I'm sorry. About all of this," Sam apologized sincerely.

Leaning up against the doorframe to the bathroom, I noted just how sorry he really did look. It was obvious none of the guys had been expecting me to be kidnapped and hurt, and in fact had been trying to prevent that the entire time. But I still thought it was foolish and stupid of them to send me away.

"You guys know I can take care of myself. I don't need you to send me off somewhere, especially without a clue about what's going on, to try to protect me."

Sam shot me another sheepish grin from across the room. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We just figured you might be harder to find, and with a bunch of other hunters, you'd be harder to be hurt."

I nodded, seeing their reasoning even though I didn't agree with what they had done.

"Well now you know for next time," I told him in a joking tone.

A warm smile spread across his lips before he crossed the distance between us in a few strides and pulled my mouth to his. It took me by surprise because it had happened so fast, but it wasn't long before my mouth was moving in sync with his. Walking backwards, I pulled him into the bathroom with me and expertly shut the bathroom door with my foot without even looking.

My hands were quickly unbuttoning his plaid shirt while his mouth was moving down my neck. We were both moving feverishly, and I was beginning to feel lightheaded for a different reason now.

Once I'd tossed his shirt across the bathroom, I began unbuttoning my jeans as fast as I could. When they were halfway down my legs, Sam easily picked me up by the hips and set me on the bathroom counter before tugging them off the rest of the way and tossing them over his shoulder. I pulled my shirt over my head moments after and it too joined the mounting pile of discarded clothing on the bathroom floor.

His mouth was back on mine again, hungrily kissing me in a way that was quickly getting me worked up. His hands were running up and down my thighs; the warmth of his skin raising goosebumps on mine. When his hands began traveling further up, I couldn't stop the soft moan I let out against his lips, which only encouraged him further. Unable to take much more anticipation, I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him to me in the process. I began unbuttoning his jeans while his hands continued on and his mouth found its way down my chest.

Before I got much farther than unzipping his jeans though, he abruptly stopped and I could feel the muscles all over his body tighten in surprise. He pulled back slowly from me, his eyes shut incredibly tight, and was shaking his head back and forth like he was trying to physically shake out a thought.

"Sam?"

He pulled all the way away from me now and opened his eyes, but he didn't look at me. Instead he was looking just to my right. I glanced over to see nothing but the toilet, which looked like it usually did.

"What's wrong, Sam?" I asked concerned, reaching my unbandaged arm and gently placing a hand on his own arm.

He jumped at my touch and turned to look at me, glanced briefly to where he'd been looking moments before, then back to me. His forehead was creased with worry and his eyes dark with trouble.

He shook his head from side to side again really quick before quickly apologizing and excusing himself in a hurry.

"Well now," I mumbled a little dejected, "that is definitely a first."

With a sigh I took off what was left of my clothing before turning on the shower. I made sure the water was warm before stepping in and washing up. I took my time, careful not to get the bandage wet, not in a hurry to run into Sam after what had just transpired.

The look on his face had me concerned, but that didn't alleviate the awkwardness. I wasted quite a bit of time in the bathroom contemplating how I would approach the subject with him when we had a moment alone.

There was a knock on the bathroom door that made me jump nearly out of the towel I had wrapped around me as I combed my hair.

"Food's here, hurry the hell up before I eat it all," Dean's gruff voice called through the wooden door.

I straightened up and decided I'd pretend things weren't weird for the time being. I went out into the empty bedroom and shut the door before I began looking for clean clothes. I usually had some spare clothes in the dresser in here for emergency situations in which I hadn't brought any of my things. Being kidnapped and then hitching a ride on a demon summoning spell with the King of Hell was not something I had foreseen, but it fell under the 'emergency situation' category.

After throwing on my clothes, I threw on my best 'I-didn't-just-try-to-get-it-on-with-Sam-and-have-him-run-out-awkwardly-on-me' face I could before making my way to the kitchen.


	6. Chapter 6

**Ambray- Sorry if you're a little confused! Things will start making more sense as the story goes on; just know that Crowley isn't giving up so easily. Hopefully this chapter clears a little of what happened up!**

**Just figured I'd post this one up so you wouldn't possibly have to wait a few days for it! **

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><p>When I headed into the kitchen, Bobby was leaning up against the counter eating what looked like Subway. Dean tossed me a sandwich when he had noticed me and I took a seat in the empty chair at the table where both brothers were eating. I noticed Sam was trying to stare a hole into the kitchen table while he ate. It almost looked like he didn't realize anyone else was in the kitchen.<p>

I quickly unwrapped the sandwich and began eating; I had been hungry for quite some time now and all the action of the last few hours had not helped.

Breaking the silence hanging in the air, I finally spoke up. "So what the hell happened after I left?"

Dean paused mid-bite before looking over at his brother, who was still staring determinedly at the table, and then turned his attention to me. He set his sandwich down and wiped his hands against his jeans before answering. Bobby remained silent against the counter, his attention turned to the window above the sink.

"Crowley wanted Sam for a vessel," Dean told me. "Castiel told me, though he told me he'd heard it from Eve. I'm beginning to think he was told by Crowley though, since they'd become so chummy."

I nodded, taking that in. "But where do I come in?"

"Cas told me Crowley was going to use you to get to Sam, I don't know how, but we figured if you weren't with us you'd be safer. Possibly harder to find."

Glancing over at Sam, I saw him glaring daggers at the tiled kitchen floor now. His forehead was creased again, and that look he had on his face about an hour ago was back. I looked back to Dean to see he too was aware of Sam's strange behavior, though it looked more like he knew what was going on. Or at least could guess.

"So," I continued on, catching Dean's attention again, "Castiel was working with Crowley to take the souls out of purgatory, and they were going to share them? And Crowley knew a normal vessel wouldn't be able to hold all of that power, so he wanted Sam?"

Dean nodded before taking a bite out of his sandwich again. "Pretty much," he said with his mouth full. "But apparently you would have been safer with us anyway."

"No shit Sherlock," I said, hoping to brighten the dreary tone in the room. It didn't exactly work. "But at least now that's all over. Minus Castiel being God, right? What's up with that?"

"I don't know if I'd say Crowley is going to just give up that easily," Dean threw out, "but this time you're not leaving our side."

"What about Cas?" I asked again, content to find out the guys weren't going to pull another stupid move of sending me off somewhere to keep me safe.

"He's gone crazy with power," Bobby answered from the counter. "Just going around killing people that he sees as sinners and bad people. The body count is rising."

"He needs to be stopped," Sam said, finally speaking up.

I noticed Sam was rubbing a hand over his eyes, but he seemed to be a little more himself. That made me feel a little better. I still needed to ask him about that though. Something was up.

"So we want to bind Death and have him kill Castiel," Dean said with a tone of finality.

I almost let out a snort of disbelief. Would Death even care about the trivial problems of humans? The guy existed anywhere and everywhere in the universe, supposedly, so what were we and our silly problems to him?

"Isn't that just going to piss him off?" I ventured a guess.

Dean shrugged. "What else can we do? We have no way of killing him ourselves. Best thing to do is try to stay out of his way ourselves."

I let out a sigh before continuing with my late dinner. It didn't take long for me to finish it because I was so hungry, and then I said goodnight to Bobby and Dean before heading upstairs, Sam quietly following behind.

He continued not to say anything as the two of us went through our nightly rituals of getting ready for sleep and changing into clothes to sleep in. It wasn't exactly awkward anymore, but I kept glancing at him out of the corner of my eye every few seconds. He was acting perfectly fine now.

Crawling into the bed beside him, Sam reached over and turned off the lamp on the table beside his side of the bed. The room was suddenly dark except for a few streaks of light filtering through the curtains.

"What's going on with you Sam?" I finally asked.

For a moment I wondered if he had somehow already fallen asleep; the stillness of the room seemed my only answer. But then I heard him exhale a breath he must have been holding in.

I rolled onto my side so that I was looking at his face. I could just faintly make out his features in the dim lighting.

"When Castiel took in all those souls, he changed. Long story short, he took that wall in my head, the one Death put up, down."

Whatever I thought had been going on with Sam, I definitely was not expecting that. How was Dean not more upset? How was Sam not a pile of mush on the ground, completely crazy?

"So earlier…?" I prompted, hoping he'd explain his strange behavior more.

"You have to promise not to tell Dean."

I shifted so I was propped up on my right arm now. "He doesn't know? Cause it looked like he knew something was wrong."

Sam shook his head lightly. "He knows, but not just how bad it is. I don't want to worry him more, we've got enough going on with Castiel right now. He doesn't need this."

Reluctantly I agreed to not mention anything to his brother.

"I keep seeing Lucifer."

My stomach fell. That couldn't be good.

"He's everywhere lately. He keeps telling me this isn't real, that I'm still in hell, still in the cage with him. He's telling me over and over that everything that happened to me since I left hell wasn't real, he's just making me think I got out. He says he thinks it's his best form of torture yet," Sam confessed.

"But Sam," I told him gently, reaching my hand out and placing it on his shoulder, "You didn't imagine any of this. Dean, Bobby, myself; we're all real. You're not in hell. Lucifer is the one who's not real, you know that right?"

He glanced over my shoulder briefly before his gaze was back on me. My brows furrowed questioningly.

"You're seeing him now, aren't you?"

Sam nodded slowly, glancing back over my shoulder.

I had to admit, it was a little weird to think he thought Lucifer was just hanging out right behind me. But it was all just in Sam's head. It had to be. Because it all started after Castiel got rid of the wall. That was the only thing that made sense, right?

"What's he saying?" I asked after I noticed he'd been staring in the same spot for a bit.

"He just said he was right, that of course you'd say what you did. Because you're not real and he is making you say that."

I frowned deeply. "Sam, he's not real," I told him firmly.

A moment's pause passed before he responded. "I know."

"You're going to keep me informed about what's going on with you, right? You aren't just going to pretend you're fine for everyone else's sake, are you?"

"I don't want Dean to know."

"I won't tell Dean then. Unless things get really bad. But you better not go keeping this all to yourself. You can talk to me about this," I told him.

"Alright," he said slowly.

I wasn't entirely convinced he'd keep me completely updated on this Lucifer situation, but I wasn't going to press it right now. I was exhausted and tomorrow we were going to be working on binding Death, and seeing how reluctant he was to say too much on this topic, I decided to drop it and try to get some sleep myself.

But that didn't stop me from wondering what was running through his head as he was just laying there next to me, listening to Lucifer talking to him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Ambray- haha no don't, sometimes I wonder if everything makes complete sense, because I know what I mean since I'm writing it, butI'm hoping everyone is able to follow it without being confused, so I'm glad you said so!**

**SomebodyWhoCares- Thank you for the reviews! I've been trying to keep up on updates in my freetime, I feel bad for having kept everyone hanging for a few weeks!**

**SamWlover- Thanks so much for your reviews on this story and the last one! Glad you like both stories!**

**So I'm thinking about working on a Dean story, though not publishing it just yet because this story is my focus right now, but I figured I'd mention it to see how people feel about it! Anyway, this chapter is a little longer than my usual, so enjoy =).**

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><p>Sam and Bobby were both hard at work researching on their laptops in Bobby's study. Just a couple hours ago we'd received the spell to bind Death in the mail, which almost made me want to laugh because Crowley had, in fact, overnighted the damn thing.<p>

I hadn't noticed Sam acting strange all day, so either he hadn't had anymore Lucifer incidents, or he was getting really good at hiding it. When I had tried to talk to him about it, he just told me he was fine.

"Well we got most of this stuff, but we're going to have to make a run for some of this," Bobby said with a sigh from the other room, breaking the ongoing silence.

Dean rose from his seat beside me at the kitchen table at the sound of Bobby's voice and made his way into the room. Grabbing my can of Coke I soon followed in behind him, smiling as I saw Sam hard at work on his laptop with that nerdy look of concentration on his face.

"Like what?" Dean asked, heading over to Bobby's desk and going to his side. He leaned over Bobby's shoulder to see what he was looking at on the laptop.

I made my way over to the loveseat Sam was sitting on and he instantly wrapped an arm around my shoulder, shooting me a grin. He seemed cheerful enough, so I decided not to think too much about his situation, and smiled back before leaning into his side.

"Like an act of God, crystallized forever," Bobby answered Dean in a whimsical tone, clearly annoyed at the wording of the spell.

I saw Sam pull a face next to me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm thinking it means an actual crystal," Bobby said, his voice back to normal as he spoke. "See, if lightening strikes sand at the right angle, it crystallizes into the perfect shape of itself."

Sam let out a 'hmmph' beside me. "Lightening, act of God," he said, piecing the two together.

"You got yourself a fulgurite," Bobby continued on, "and we're going to need a biggie."

My heart sank. "Something tells me these aren't exactly easy to come across. And we're not taking a trip to the beach."

Sam shot me a lopsided grin and Dean laughed, saying something along the lines of "I wouldn't be opposed to that!"

"You'd be standing on the beach for a long time," Bobby said, "not to mention you'd probably get struck by lightening before the sand would."

"Way to go, Bobby. Ruin my fun. I just wanted a tan," I joked.

Bobby just shook his head at me before looking back at his laptop. The mood in the room returned to serious.

"I found one of these puppies in an online auction. Winning bidder is about nine hours from here," Bobby told us, looking up with a hopeful look on his face.

I stood up from my spot on the couch instantly. "Let's get on this shit then."

Dean raised a brow at me from his place beside Bobby. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Because the prospect of a nine hour drive hasn't sunk in yet, so can we please leave like now before it does?"

"You're not the one driving, I don't know why you're complaining," Dean grumbled.

"You won't let anyone else drive!" I exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger. "So don't you even complain! I have to sit there bored, for nine hours, listening to your music and your singing."

"Boohoo," Dean said with a wave of his hand. "Get some shit together and get it in the Impala, we'll be out there after we grab what we need here."

Sam and Dean went out to the car not long after, their other necessities already in the trunk, while Bobby and I made our way upstairs. I grabbed some spare clothes and tossed them into a duffle bag I found in the closet.

"Ready kid?" Bobby asked, sticking his head in through the doorway.

I glanced around the room, making sure Sam hadn't left anything useful behind.

"Yeah," I said when I was satisfied we had everything, "let's get going."

We made our way down the stairs and out of the front door. Sam, to my great surprise, was sitting in the back. The idea made me think the trip wouldn't end up being half as bad now.

Bobby and I made room for our two bags in the trunk, making sure of course that the more important bags were at the top. Weapons were more important than clothing in an emergency. Closing the trunk, Bobby made his way to the front passenger seat and I made my way to the seat behind Dean.

We were off in no time, and as I predicted, Dean was blaring his music and singing along to it. He seemed in a good mood, so I decided not to spoil it.

A couple hours into the trip I saw Sam starting to doze off, his head nodding against the window, but every time it hit it, he'd jolt back up straight. I wondered if he had even fallen asleep after our conversation last night.

After a few times of watching him repeat the process I pulled him over to me and, despite the limited space we had, tried to cuddle up the best we could in the backseat, much to Dean's disturbance. We stayed like that the rest of the drive minus the times we got up for bathroom breaks at rest areas along the way. Sam remained asleep for most of the trip, which was fine by me because I got to play with his hair until I eventually dozed off.

When the Impala finally pulled up at the house, I felt my stomach turn to knots. It was almost three in the morning and our only plan was to break in. This just didn't feel like a good idea, but they had a point. There really wasn't much of a way to work FBI or something into this.

We quietly piled out of the car and unloaded the duffle bag the guys put together that contained everything we had picked up for the spell. We only needed the act of God thing inside this house now. We each grabbed a flashlight before Dean closed the trunk.

Bobby and Sam took the lead as we snuck around the back of the house towards the backdoor. Dean was lagging a little behind me somewhere, but I had my eyes too busy scanning around for movement in the windows to pay much attention. I could make out his footsteps coming up behind me anyway.

Bobby flashed his light onto an outside fuse box by the door. Sam walked up and tried to peer into the backdoor window, making sure his flashlight was shining inside.

"Hey!" a voice called out behind me.

I jumped, realizing it wasn't Dean that had spoken. Both Sam and Bobby jumped too and whirled around on the spot.

"Excuse me," Dean said, rushing out from where the man had just come from and briefly caught his attention, "Do you have any grey poupon?"

Dean didn't waste a second before knocking the man, who appeared to be a cop, upside the head with the end of his flashlight. The guy dropped to the ground in a heap, unconscious.

Sam shot his brother a look like he was an idiot. "Grey poupon? Seriously?"

Dean pulled a face and shrugged. "It's what popped in my head."

"I can't believe I'm breaking and entering with you," I mumbled, though Dean still heard it.

"Someone's nervous," he teased in a sing song voice.

"Would you just shut up? You're going to be knocking a bunch more people out if you don't," I whispered harshly.

His mouth remained shut afterwards, but there was still a smug look on his face. Apparently my nerves were amusing to him.

I had no idea what Bobby was doing at the fuse box, but when he finished we made our way into the house through the backdoor Sam was standing at. Keeping our flashlights aimed fairly low so people in the neighborhood wouldn't see the lights through the windows, we snuck our way through the house.

Dean had taken the lead before us, but eventually we split up in the house, each of us taking separate rooms. I wandered into the kitchen, though it seemed silly they would keep the fulgurite in there. Checking anyway just in case, I jumped when I heard the faint, but incredibly distinct sound, of a shotgun being cocked in another room.

"God dammit," I whispered under my breath before turning off my flashlight.

Quietly as I could, I snuck around the kitchen to a different door than I'd come in. It had lead me to the living room, and in the room right off of it I saw a man and woman in robes with their back to me. One of the guys must be in that room held at gun point.

Trying to remain quiet, I snuck up behind the couple.

"Excuse me," I called out, trying to contain my amusement, "but do you have any grey poupon?"

The couple spun around just like I had wanted, but the man was too surprised to have kept the shotgun aimed and held correctly in his movement. I used that to my advantage and stepped forward, using a couple well placed hits to safely knock it from his hands and across the floor to Dean.

He grabbed the gun from off the floor, though he wasn't really aiming it at the couple, before glancing to me with a smile on his face. "Cute."

I grinned in response, but we didn't exactly have time for this.

"I hate to do this to you, but we're going to have to tie you up. And probably gag you," Dean said as he turned his attention back to the couple.

"Who the hell are you?" the man shouted sounding incredibly outraged.

I couldn't really blame him. I mean, we were breaking into his house. And we took his gun.

"Look, we're not here to hurt you or rob you or whatever. We just have to do something and then we'll be gone. It won't take long, but we can't have you calling the cops on us so…" Dean said, his voice trailing off.

Dean being Dean, he was quite resourceful and had the couple tied up in less than ten minutes. I had no idea where Sam and Bobby had gotten off to, but not long after Dean had finished up doing a good job at probably getting us arrested when all this was over, they finally showed up.

Dean grinned sheepishly at his brother as he entered the room alongside Bobby. They didn't look too thrilled at the sight before them. Their mouths were hanging open a bit in shock.

"Hey guys," Dean said, forcing a smile. With a gesture at the couple tied up and gagged in two chairs beside him, he added on, "This is Dr. and Mrs. Weiss."

The couple immediately began making sounds behind their gags, giving pleading eyes to the two men who'd just entered.

Sam quickly cleared his throat. "Hi, sorry," he said in short to the couple.

"Well…I found the God thingy," Dean told the guys before heading over to the case it was in to show us.

The room we were in looked like a museum. There was stuff hung in cases on the walls and all about the room. Everything looked expensive.

"I'll get the candles lighted," Bobby uttered out as if there wasn't a couple tied up just a few feet from him.

While Sam pulled the crystallized lightening from the case and worked on crushing it up and making the mixture needed for the spell, Dean got to work on setting up a nice space for Death along with some food we had picked up for him. I didn't see how that would butter up Death, but Dean thought it would be worth a shot.

Bobby was lighting the candles like he said while I got to work drawing the symbol that the bowl of whatever Sam was mixing up was supposed to go on.

"We need fresh human blood," Bobby said when everything was about done.

The couple began to get nervous and tug at their restraints, assuming we meant them. We decided ignoring them would probably be our best option.

"I'll do it," Dean said not sounding too enthused.

He held his arm above the bowl Sam held out while Bobby slid the knife quickly over Dean's arm, drawing a line of bright red blood behind it. I bit my lip and glanced down at the bandage on my wrist where there was a similar, but deeper, cut.

"You're welcome," Dean grunted out to no one in particular.

I grabbed one of the extra bandanas we had found when we'd tied up the couple and used it to stop the bleeding.

Bobby set everything on the desk where it needed to go. The three of us stood back behind him as he read off the spell in Latin from the paper Crowley had sent us.

The more he read off the paper, the more the house began to shake violently. Books began falling off their shelves and the lights began rattling on the walls. All of the glass cases in the room shattered. The ceiling began to crack above us, causing my heart to suddenly start racing, wondering what we were getting ourselves into.

And as suddenly as it started, it just stopped. Silence followed.

Sam and I exchanged equal looks of confusion before looking around the room as if Death would pop out of the ground.

Dean took two steps forward and hesitantly, voice wavering, called out. "Hello? Death?"

I jumped when he really did appear out of thin air. One moment the space behind Dean was empty, the next, a tall, dark form stood there.

"You're joking," Death said without humor.

I heard the woman behind me let out a muted sound of terror at the newcomer.

"I'm sorry, this isn't what it seems," Dean said nervously.

With the most unhappy expression, Death lifted his hands in the air to show a few strings of white attached between his wrists. "It seems like you bound me," he said, an edge to his voice.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks for the reviews guys! I'm excited to work on this next chapter because something a little different is happening ;). So on that note, enjoy this chapter and I'll try to update again today if I have time!**

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><p>"We did it for good reason, just hear us out," Dean said nervously. "Uhm," he paused, not sure how to approach the situation, but his eyes caught on to the food on the table he'd pulled into the room just a few feet away. With a hopeful look he turned back to Death and tried to sound as friendly as possible. "Fried pickle chip? They're the best in the state."<p>

Dean wandered over to the table while Death stared down his nose at him, his lips pursed. He watched Dean momentarily as he opened up the bag of food.

Death took a few steps towards Dean, causing me to shrink back from his presence, his cane tapping along the ground with each step.

"That easy to soothe me you think?" Death questioned him, causing Dean to stop in the middle of what he was doing, eyes wide. "This is about Sam's hallucinations, I take it? The wall I put up appears to be gone."

"What?" Dean asked, appalled to hear Death mention anything about hallucinations. He glanced back at his brother who only avoided his gaze.

"Sorry Sam," Death continued on as if Dean had never said anything, "Only one wall per customer." He raised his hands up again, a fiercely annoyed look on his face. "Now unbind me," he commanded.

"We can't," Sam said in a small voice. "Yet," he tacked on when he saw the look that crossed Death's face.

"This isn't going to end well," Death warned as he began to survey the room.

"We need you to kill God," Dean threw out.

Death's head snapped back to him so fast I nearly jumped. Why couldn't Dean ever be more tactful?

"Pardon?" he asked calmly, like he hadn't just heard what Dean had said.

"Kill God," Bobby affirmed. "You heard right…your honor."

Once again in my life I found myself thinking that had the current situation not been so tense and serious, I'd have found the moment funny. What did one call Death as a title of respect anyway?

Death placed his cane in front of himself now and laid both his hands on top of it, leaning a little forward. He knew how intimidating he was to us.

"Why should I?"

"Because…we said so…and…we're the boss of you," Dean spoke hesitantly.

Sam, Bobby and I all slowly turned to look at Dean as if he'd just signed our death wish. He needed tact. And to learn when to shut up.

His eyes shot back over to us really quick before he returned back to Death's annoyed stare. "I mean…respectfully," he added.

"Amazing," a voice said right behind my shoulder.

My head snapped in the direction to see Castiel. He looked awful. Castiel's face looked like some of the skin was peeling off as if he had very bad burns.

"Cas?" I asked, unable to believe the figure beside me was the angel we knew.

He didn't even acknowledge me, just turned his attention to Dean.

"I didn't want to kill you, but…now," Castiel deadpanned, surveying the situation taking place.

"You can't kill us," Dean said firmly, though he didn't sound very convincing.

"You have erased any nostalgia I had for you Dean," Castiel said, ignoring him and raising up his hand as if he were about to snap his fingers and kill us all on the spot.

I noticed the back of his hand looked just like his face. So his vessel really was deteriorating from all of that power like Crowley had thought it would. Maybe he would just fall apart on his own?

"Death is our bitch," Dean said before Castiel could snap his fingers, "We can't die. Even if you try to kill us."

"Annoying little protozoa, aren't they?" Death asked Castiel, glancing between the lot of us. His eyes narrowed at the angel now. "God? You look awfully like a mutated angel to me. Your vessel is melting; you're going to explode."

Castiel looked defiant. "No. I am not. I can repair myself."

Death cut in quickly, "You think you can because you think you're just dealing with the energy from all of those souls, yes? But that isn't the only problem you have."

Castiel's faced betrayed a hint of fear, but he remained silent.

"There are things in purgatory that are much older than souls, and you swallowed those up too."

My mind was spinning. What could be older than a soul? And how dangerous could they be?

"I control them," Castiel spoke, though that hint of fear was still just visible on his face.

That hint of fear was making me nervous.

"Only for the moment."

Unable to remain silent any longer, and now that my mind was really reeling, I spoke up, catching Death's attention and feeling the full weight of his stare. "What could be older than a soul?"

"God made the first beasts, well before he ever created angel or man. Leviathans," Death responded easily, his gaze remaining fixed on me.

His eyes almost appeared black, not like that of a demon's where the entire eye is black, but it looked devoid of color. Like his eyes could suck you in like a black hole. I glanced away with a childish fear that maybe they could.

"Leviathans?" Dean asked, now becoming anxious himself.

Death now turned his cold stare towards Dean, allowing me to breathe a bit easier.

"Personally I found them quite amusing, but God was afraid they'd devour the entire Petri dish," he explained briefly. "He locked them up. Why do you think God created purgatory? He meant to keep those clever beasts away. And now Castiel has swallowed them. He is the only, thin, little membrane between your home, and its demise."

"That's enough," Castiel called out.

"Foolish little angel you are," Death shot at him.

"Why?" Castiel demanded, approaching Death with no fear evident on his face now. "Just because I opened a door he shut?" He stopped right in front of Death, holding his gaze. "What are you, really? A fly swatter?"

"Destined to swat you, I believe," Death replied back smoothly.

"Not if I get rid of you first," Castiel shot back.

Really? As if Castiel believed he could actually kill Death? That seemed like the most impossible and illogical idea in the world. The guys were right, Castiel had really gone off the deep end after taking in all of that power. He seemed drunk with the power, totally crazy and full of himself. It was depressing to see someone who, despite not being human, had become family to us, and then turned into such a monster himself.

"Oh Cas, I know God, and _you_ are no God."

"Alright both of you stop, call him what you want, I don't care, just kill him now!" Dean said, breaking up the heated argument.

Castiel glanced over his shoulder at Dean, his eyes holding something in them that seemed to resemble hurt despite his earlier words. The two of them stood there a moment, staring at each other. I couldn't quite understand the emotions running through the two of them, but I knew they had been close. Closer than any of us had been with Cas.

"Alright, fine," Death said, raising up his left hand.

Before he got any farther, eyes still unblinkingly staring Dean down, Castiel snapped his fingers and the bind on Death's wrists broke. Death immediately drew his hand away and examined it, all the while Castiel kept his gaze intact.

"Thank you," Death said, crossing the room to where the food Dean had set down earlier was at. He dug into the bag as he continued on with, "I had a feeling I'd be reaping someone soon. I hope I'm not disappointed." Death glanced over at the couple Dean and I had tied up earlier, who had remained deathly silent the entire time, and called out to them, "Don't worry, not you."

But instead of Castiel smiting any one of us, he just disappeared. Death wasn't bound to us anymore, he could have killed us on the spot, but he chose not to.

I was confused. Wasn't that the point of him showing up in the first place? Hadn't he come here to kill us because we were trying to kill him?

"Someone was in a hurry," Death commented as he popped a fried pickle chip into his mouth.

He continued to eat as the room remained silent, tension filling the air. I awkwardly nudged Sam, who glanced at his brother and gestured for him to say something. Bobby stood there, stiff as a board, trying really hard not to make a sound, let alone breathe.

Eventually Dean cleared his throat, but he didn't get much farther than that.

"Shut up Dean," Death said simply, "I'm not here to help dress you in the mornings. I warned you all about the souls a long time ago. More than enough time for you to stop that fool but yet here we are, again, with your little planet on the edge of ruin."

"Well I'm sorry," Dean said gruffly, getting angry now. "I have been trying to save this little planet over and over, but maybe you should find somebody better to tip off!"

"Or maybe I should spend my effort on a better planet," Death chimed in, clearly unaffected by Dean's anger and frustration. "Well, it's been amusing, but it's time for me to leave." He stood from the chair he had sat in and took a few strides forward, his cane rapping against the wooden floor with each step.

"Hold on," Sam pleaded beside me. "Can't you give us something? I mean, you have to care a little bit about what happens to us, right?"

Death turned his attention from Sam, to me, to Bobby, then back to Sam, ignoring Dean entirely. "You know, I really don't."

"What about Castiel?" I pressed, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "You didn't seem to like him."

Death's cold stare redirected itself to me again. It was calculating and eerie; I felt uncomfortable again. Instantly I realized Bobby was the smartest out of the lot of us, being the one who had remained silent the entire time.

"I do find that trifling angel to be callous and arrogant," Death admitted, eyeing me curiously.

"Great, let's go with that," I prodded, hoping he'd take the bait and help us.

He leaned forward, his face mere inches from mine, his dark eyes were somehow even more frightening at this distance. I fought the urge to take a few steps back.

"You're only hope," he told me, his voice smooth and devoid of any real care, "is to put those souls back in purgatory."

"We need a door," Sam cut in quickly.

"You have everything you need at that lab," Death stated knowingly, slowly standing back up straight and giving me room to breathe. "Lure him there and compel him to give up the power."

Dean let out a snort of disbelief. "Compel him?"

"Figure it out," Death snapped.

For the first time since he had spoken the incantation for the spell to bind Death, Bobby spoke up. He still seemed rigid though. "The door only opens during the eclipse, and that's over now."

Death looked bored. "I'll make another. Three fifty-nine, Sunday morning. Just before dawn. Be punctual." With that he turned towards Dean, his boredom tinged with an underlying irritation now as he held up a finger to stop him from saying whatever he was about to say. "Don't thank me, just do it." He began to make his way out of the room and paused as he neared the woman tied in the chair, who cringed away from him as well. Glancing over his shoulder he said in a threatening tone, "Try to bind me again, and I'll kill you before you begin."

I didn't doubt that threat either. Dean needed to stop calling on Death; there was only so many times these guys could try to cheat it.

"By the way," he said, pausing before he fully exited the room, the atmosphere still tense which made the small smile now on his face somewhat disturbing, "Nice pickle chips."


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the wait on this chapter everyone, once again I got a little busy. Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapters! Anyway, here's part nine! **

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><p>Everyone was restless once we had gotten back to Bobby's. Sam and Dean hadn't really been talking, and Bobby wasn't very social himself. It had been just yesterday that we'd tried to bind Death and he left on the parting warning that we needed to get Castiel to put the souls back into purgatory. Sam was eager to get started on that himself, already packed up and everything. He had told me he was going down to find Dean and see if he was ready to hit the road, but something told me that wasn't going to end well. I remembered running across Dean a bit ago, and he was already drinking. It wasn't even nine-thirty in the morning yet.<p>

Sure enough I heard arguing. Dean wasn't too thrilled about Sam keeping the hallucinations from him, which was to be expected of course. I gathered by the way Sam somewhat slammed the front door of Bobby's house shut that he'd gotten frustrated and that Dean wasn't planning on going anywhere.

Deciding to stay out of it, I ended up falling asleep on the bed. Though it wasn't long before Bobby came rushing in to wake me up.

"Castiel is here," Bobby said at once, "he wants to put the souls back. We only have until dawn so you need to get your things packed and get into the Impala right now."

With that he left the room and entered his down the hall, probably to get ready himself.

A renewed sense of urgency had me jumping off the bed and rushing to make sure I still had the duffle bag packed from the other day. I slung the strap over my shoulder and made my way down the stairs of Bobby's house, taking them two at a time. Bobby was right behind me, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder too.

When I got to the Impala outside, I climbed into the back where Sam was sitting and Bobby climbed into the front. That's when I noticed Castiel on the other side of Sam, not looking too well.

His eyes weren't open and he was incredibly still, but he wasn't dead. His face and clothes were covered in drying blood. My nose scrunched up in disgust at the smell and the sight, so I rolled down the window next to me. I didn't even want to know where all that blood had come from and I'm sure I damn well didn't want to know whose it was.

The drive was long and deathly silent. Probably the worst one I could ever recall us having. No one spoke. Dean didn't even put on his music.

Once we reached the lab the guys had been at before without me, Bobby and Sam immediately helped Castiel out of the car. Between the two of them they managed to hold him up and begin leading him inside the building. Dean directed me about which bags to grab before grabbing some weapons himself, as a precaution, and then lead the way inside.

It was dark inside, and it smelled horrible. There were puddles of water on certain places on the ground and mold growing on the cement floors. The brick walls were stained and I wasn't sure I wanted to know with what. I had no idea what had went on here when the guys had last been here. Or before that, when I saw the room we were setting up in.

We didn't waste any time getting to work though. Bobby was in charge of telling us what we needed to do to get things working, and I let him guide us through the steps. Castiel was leaning up against a metal table on wheels. It looked like there were instruments of torture on top of it. The room was giving me the chills.

"We need the right blood," Castiel said, grabbing Sam by the arm weakly as he walked by him. "There's a jar down at the end of the hall. It's in a supply closet."

"Got it," Sam said before he rushed off out of the room to go find the jar.

I began moving some of the metal carts away from the wall with Dean's help. All of them were splattered with dried blood here and there. I tried to ignore it.

"Dean," Castiel called out a moment later, his voice sounding strained and tired.

Dean stopped pushing the cart we were moving, this one almost entirely painted in dark red blood, and spun around to look at Castiel anxiously. I immediately removed my hands from the cart, not wanting to be touching it longer than necessary.

"What? You need something else?" Dean asked him.

"No," Castiel rasped out. "I feel regret. About you and what I did to Sam."

"You should," Dean said, turning back around and going back to work moving the cart.

"If there was time, if I had the strength, I'd fix him now," Castiel continued. "I just wanted to make amends before I die."

Mine and Bobby's eyes caught each others from across the room. I hadn't thought about the fact that he was probably going to die since I'd seen him sitting in the Impala hours ago, looking a mess. A part of me was hoping he'd be fine after the souls left him.

Dean had been trying to move something that looked like a bunch of busted up metal cabinets from the wall now. He stopped and looked back at Castiel.

"Okay," he said, sounding irritated.

Castiel laid there looking quite hopeless. It sounded like his breathing was labored because he kept taking noisy, quick breaths. "Is it working?"

A conflicted look crossed Dean's face before he responded, "Does it make you feel better?"

"No," Castiel answered in a weak voice, a very morose look on his face. "You?"

"Not a bit," he said in short, going back to moving the filing cabinets.

I watched as Castiel's face fell before I grabbed the other end of the cabinets and helped Dean push them away from the wall too.

The next few minutes we worked on in silence. Castiel didn't say anymore, just stared up through the window high on the wall across from him. His breathing was still loud and sounding like it caused him pain, though his face betrayed no trace of that. Instead, he looked like he really did regret what he'd done, and my heart broke watching him.

"Where's Sam?" Dean asked suddenly.

Bobby shrugged and looked at his watch. "We've got a couple minutes before we need to start."

Dean left the room abruptly to go after his brother who had been missing for a few minutes now.

I sat down on a clean spot on the floor by Castiel, who turned to stare at me now. I shot him a sheepish smile. I may not have been happy about what he'd done to Sam, or Dean, or how he'd gone around killing innocent people, but I couldn't just stand there and watch him suffer in silence. He knew he'd done wrong. And he knew if he could, he'd go back and fix it all.

"Hang in there," I told him quietly.

Castiel's lip twitched into a smile briefly and he went to staring out the window again. Bobby glanced down at me and he shot me a questioning look. I ignored it and continued to wait in silence for Dean to come back with Sam.

I was worried when Dean entered the room alone again with the jar of blood.

"Where's Sam?" I asked him nervously.

"I don't know," he answered hoarsely, "But we have just a couple minutes to draw these symbols so he has to wait."

Dean ripped the bandana Bobby tossed to him in half and gave a piece to me. He showed me the symbols we needed to draw on the wall in blood. As much as I wanted to run off and go find Sam, I knew this was more important. We only had one shot, and it was Sam who had finally gotten us to this point, he wouldn't want us to give up. He was probably fine somewhere, just struggling with a hallucination. Not that that made me feel too comfortable, but I doubted it was anything worse than that.

Bobby grabbed the paper to start reciting the Latin spell while Dean and I maneuvered Castiel up in front of the symbol we'd painted on the wall with the blood. Bobby began reading off the paper and a few lines in, Castiel collapsed on his own feet. Racing forward, Dean and I pulled him back up.

The symbols on the wall looked as if they had caught fire suddenly before the entire wall seemed to open into a burning black hole. Dean looked a little puzzled from where he was standing, which confused me, but was quickly distracted when Castiel weakly glanced over his should and apologized to Dean once more.

"This looks different!" Dean called out to me over Bobby's incantation.

I was eyeing the wall, which had definitely turned into a portal of some sort to somewhere other than where we were. It actually reminded me a lot of the portals that opened whenever we exorcised demons and they were dragged back to Hell. A blindingly bright light erupting from Castiel cut off my observation though, causing all three of us to shield our eyes and look away.

The giant hole in the wall disappeared after a few minutes right as Castiel dropped to the ground. The three of us rushed to his side, unsure if he was dead or alive.

Bobby reached out a hand to the angel's neck and shook his head. "He's cold."

"Is he breathing?" Dean asked anxiously, reaching a hand forward to check.

"No," Bobby told him.

"Maybe angels don't need to breathe," Dean said hopefully.

"He's gone, Dean," Bobby said gently.

It was then I realized I hadn't been the only one thinking Castiel would be alright in the end. I watched as Dean's face fell.

"Damn it," he said, his voice mixed with anger and emotion. "Cas you child. Why didn't you listen to me?"

Getting back to our feet, still crowded around the motionless body, I gently placed a comforting hand on Dean's arm.

Suddenly, all of Cas' wounds disappeared as he sucked in a deep breath and his eyes shot open.

"Cas?" Dean spoke hesitantly.

The angel began looking around and taking in the room. Bobby and Dean were quick to help him up to his feet.

"That was unpleasant," Castiel said, shaking his head a bit. He glanced back to where the hole in the wall had been. "I'm alive."

"Yeah, it looks like it," Bobby said in awe.

"I'm astonished," Castiel added, "Thank you. All of you."

"We were mostly just trying to save the world," Bobby replied awkwardly.

"I'm ashamed," Castiel admitted. "I really over-reached."

"You think?" Dean shot sarcastically.

Castiel looked to Dean pleadingly. "I'll find some way to redeem myself to you."

"One thing at a time. Let's get you out of here," Dean said, grabbing Castiel's arm.

"I mean it Dean," Castiel said, stopping and giving Dean a serious look.

Dean's stern expression faltered. "Okay, okay. Let's go find Sam."

We were making our way almost out of the room when Castiel pushed us forward out of nowhere. I spun around to see him doubled over and leaning on one of the carts.

"I can't hold them back," Castiel groaned out.

"Hold who back?" I asked timidly.

Castiel's face was turning bright red from the pressure he must have been exerting to hold whatever it was inside of him. The vein in his vessel's forehead was quite visible now.

"They're so strong," Castiel choked out.

"Who?" Dean asked gruffly.

"The leviathan," Castiel groaned out.

It looked as if he was having a fit with the way his body started jerking in all different directions. He shouted for us to run, and Dean pushed both Bobby and I forward towards the exit.

"Too late!" A high pitched voice called out, sounding nothing like the angel. "Cas is gone. We run the show now."

With a vicious smile, the thing that was once Castiel grabbed Dean by the collar and flung him across the room, where he smashed into one of the many metal carts.

Pissed, I rushed forward with one of the knives I had kept on me, only to be thrown across the room into the metal cabinets Dean and I had moved earlier.

"This one's for good measure," the high pitched voice called out as the thing grabbed Bobby and threw him into a wall.

"This is going to be so much fun!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks everyone for the reviews! Once again I'm sorry about the wait for this chapter, but here it is!**

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><p>"How many of them are you? A hundred? More?" Dean asked what had just moments ago been Castiel, but was now really a vessel holding in a bunch of leviathan.<p>

Jimmy Novak's body was dripping black goo everywhere, like his body was falling apart still. It probably was. The black liquid was pouring down his face and his neck, starting to pool in little puddles on the ground.

"You're vessel's going to explode isn't it?" Dean observed. "I wouldn't do anything to strenuous, you might as well just call it a day and head on home."

There was a smug grin on Dean's face as silence filled the room.

"We'll be back for you," the thing said, now sounding as if it spoke in multiple voices at once, black liquid dripping from its right eye and down its cheek.

It glanced at me as it shuffled out of the room, taking tiny steps. I shrank away, avoiding the black liquid. The sound of shuffling feet echoed down the hallway outside of the room.

"You guys alright?" I asked after I was sure it had left.

Bobby stood up slowly, there was a cut on his cheek that was bleeding a little and Dean seemed a little banged up, but no one appeared seriously injured.

"I think we're alright," Bobby answered me, glancing over at Dean to make sure he was in fact alright.

"Let's go find Sam, he's been gone way too long," Dean said with a worried look on his face.

He didn't waste a second and was already rushing out of the room and down the hallway, Bobby and I practically chasing after him to keep up. Sam had been gone for quite awhile now, I didn't know what to expect when we found him. And that worried me.

"Sam!" Dean shouted up ahead as he spotted his brother.

Bobby and I weren't far behind as Dean began shaking his brother. Sam was staring off into a direction just over Dean's shoulder, his eyes fixated on the spot. He was shaking and his breathing was too fast to be normal. The sight was unnerving and I had a strange feeling in my gut that told me I knew what was going on. I shivered and shook the thought away.

"Sam!"

Finally Sam jumped and his eyes turned on his brother, a startled look on his face. Slowly he glanced over at me and then Bobby beside me.

"Look at me!" Dean ordered his brother.

Hesitantly he turned back to Dean as if he were afraid we were going to disappear before his eyes. His breathing was slowing to a normal pace and his muscles began to lose their previous tension.

Dean shot his brother a look that said this was definitely going to be brought up later before he grabbed Sam by the arm and told us all to hurry up and get out of here. Bobby lead the way immediately, clearly not needing to be told twice, and Dean followed right after. Sam was following directly behind me but I heard him pause and I glanced over my shoulder to see him stopped in the threshold of the room, his back to me. He quickly ran a hand through his hair before taking both of his hands and rubbing his face. Biting my lip I gently placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to shoot his head up instantly as if he was afraid someone else had touched him.

I gave him a reassuring smile before taking his hand and leading him down the hallway where Bobby and Dean had just disappeared. His hand seemed cold and a little sweaty I noticed.

"What is it?" I asked when Sam and I saw Bobby and Dean just staring out towards a body of water not far from the building's exit.

That's when I noticed Cas, or what had been Cas minutes before, wading into the water. He didn't stop or try to swim, he just kept on walking until the water was past his chin. And then he disappeared below the surface.

Dean was the first one to race towards the water's edge with the rest of us tailing him. Nothing happened for a moment, and then right where Cas had went under, tendrils of black began covering the water until the entire surface was covered. It didn't last long though before the water was the same as before, as if nothing had just happened.

"Ah hell," Bobby uttered out beside me.

That was when I noticed the sign next to us. "Public Water Supply" was the very first line I read.

"Those…whatever you call them," Bobby spoke up after a moment.

"Leviathan," I supplied absently.

"Right…" Bobby said with a nod, "if they're in the city's water supply, they've got themselves a highway to anywhere."

"Peachy," I commented sourly.

"What's that?" Sam asked, pointing towards something floating in the water.

Dean reached down and pulled up Castiel's trench coat. It was soaked and splotches of red decorated it in places. Dean looked like he was having a hard time processing what just happened.

"So he's gone," he said, his eyes on the coat.

"Rest in peace, if that's still possible," Bobby said solemnly, and we all knew what he meant by that.

Dean's face screwed up in sadness, something that was extremely rare, as he folded up the coat in his hands. Some of the blood from it began to stain his hands.

"Dumb son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath as he fought back tears.

"He was friends with us. Can't get much dumber than that," Bobby said as he tried to lighten the situation. "Come on, let's get out of here before those things come up for air."

Feeling a weight in my gut I followed the guys back to the car. Dean was still holding onto Castiel's trench coat.

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><p>I caught Dean in Bobby's living room with Sam, who was now awake after having slept the last twelve hours straight. I frowned knowing Dean had to have woken him up. If he had been sleeping peacefully, which it appeared as much, he should have left him alone. I had been arguing with him about that ever since we'd gotten back to Bobby's and Dean and Bobby had carried Sam in and placed his sleeping form on the couch.<p>

Sam was shooting strange glances to the left of Dean every so often which piqued my curiosity enough to have me join in on the conversation.

Dean was peeling off the bandage on Sam's hand to check the stitches of his palm. Sam's jaw clenched tightly shut in pain as his brother did so.

"Eh, you'll live," Dean said rather detachedly before getting up out of the chair he'd dragged over to the couch.

I didn't hide the frown on my face when Dean glanced over his shoulder at me before he quickly stepped into Bobby's study. He grabbed a bottle of alcohol off the desk and walked back over to us before pouring it onto Sam's wounded hand. Sam let out a hissing sound between his teeth as the alcohol burned and he pressed the towel that Dean had given him against his hand. He glanced over at me with a sleepy grin on his face after the pain had subsided before he moved his feet off the couch and made space for me to sit.

"I'm impatient," Sam said as Bobby took a seat in the chair Dean had just been in, "any leads?"

"They seem pretty eager to stretch their legs," Bobby told him, meaning the leviathan, as he began to unravel some clean bandages for Sam's hand.

"And we won't know what they're up to until they're a big problem," Dean added as he took a seat on another chair he'd dragged over. He sat down and then shot his brother a stern and to the point look. "How're you doing?" His eyes narrowed at Sam as his brother opened his mouth. "And do not say 'okay'."

Sam didn't even hesitate as Bobby finished wrapping up his hand. "I'm not okay," he admitted.

"You think?" Dean shot.

"Hey now, go easy on him," I said in a warning tone.

Dean's eyes rolled over to me and I knew we were on the verge of an argument.

"Go easy on him?" Dean shot at me now. "There is nothing _easy_ about it. We acted like he was okay, like he had everything under control."

So Dean was actually really mad at himself I noted. I was about to respond when Sam cut me off.

"Look I'm sorry," Sam said a little sheepishly. "I didn't exactly want to crack up, you know?"

The weight of Dean's gruff and surly gaze shifted back to Sam, who was fidgeting with the bandage on his hand now.

"What the hell happened back there?" Dean demanded.

It looked like Sam was struggling for words for a minute.

"It's not just flashbacks," he began, pausing for a moment to glance up at his brother before looking away again. "It's more like…I'm seeing through the cracks."

Dean and Bobby had no idea what he meant by that, but I did. I tried to keep this secret knowledge hidden from my face. God only knows what Dean would do to me if he knew that I had been aware of Sam's hallucinations all this time and hadn't told him.

"It means I'm having a difficult time figuring out what's real," Sam admitted.

I noticed just then that Sam's eyes were red and a little watery as if he was about to start crying. Sam was a big softy, but just like his brother, he didn't cry very often.

"Hallucinations?" Dean asked, not relenting on his brother.

"For starters," Sam answered back honestly.

"Well for starters if you're tripping hell's bells why would you hide that?" Dean growled.

I was getting ready to jump in, thinking that Sam could definitely use a more delicate approach to the subject, but Bobby noticed and quickly and discretely shook his head at me. Reluctantly I remained silent, though I placed a hand on Sam's knee.

"I wasn't hiding it Dean, I just wasn't talking about it. You seemed like you had enough going on as it was," Sam told him. "I just figured I could ride it out and everything would be alright. But it's getting more specific now."

"Specific like what?" Dean asked, his eyes narrowed once again.

So Sam went on to tell us how Lucifer kept appearing to him, telling him how he was still in Hell and that everything was fake, that all of us were fake, and that it was just another form of torture. The looks on Bobby and Dean's faces were that of utter disbelief.

"Wait, are you seeing him right now?" Dean asked, a drink he'd made while Sam had been explaining things now in his hand.

Sam's eyes shot to his left before he looked back at his brother. I already knew the answer, I'd come to recognize when Sam was hallucinating. He nodded his head slowly, not meeting Dean's eyes.

Dean leaned forward towards his brother with a very serious look on his face.

"You know that he's not real, right?" Dean asked in all seriousness.

Sam glanced to his left again, seeing something that none of us could. His jaw was clenching and unclenching.

"He says the same thing about you," Sam said in a quiet voice.


	11. Chapter 11

**It's been a _very _long time since I've updated this story, I know. It's just been a crazy busy year for me, but I found some time and figured I'd post an update! Unfortunately, I know I had an idea for this story that kind of took a different turn, but since so much time has passed, I don't remember exactly everything that I had planned out. So, for now, I'm still following the show's plot. **

**Thanks for all the reviews and I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter, sorry it took so long to get up. I hope to update it again soon! **

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><p>The front door of Bobby's house opened revealing a frustrated Dean. He had a sour look on his face, the one he usually got when he was ready to blow up at the first person to say three words to him. He spotted Bobby and I at the kitchen table trying to do some research on any recent leviathan activity. We had been scanning databases and articles on his laptop for the last couple hours while Dean had been out doing who knew what. Sam had been upstairs resting for most of the day, but about twenty minutes ago he had come down and asked how the research was coming before he found something to busy himself with in the other room.<p>

Dean was watching his brother cautiously as he made his way to the kitchen table. I knew he was frustrated because he wanted to help him, protect his brother somehow from the hallucinations, but he didn't know how. I knew how he felt because I felt the same.

"How're you holding up, Dean?" Bobby asked him warily, not wanting to light another fuse and watch the Winchester blow up again for the second time today.

"It's not me we should be worried about," Dean replied briskly, leaning over the back of my chair to get a better look at the laptop on the table.

"At least he isn't curled up under the sink," Bobby said, eyeing Sam as he continued taking apart his guns in the other room.

"Yeah, now he's just sitting there silently by himself field stripping his weapon," Dean said with an edge to his voice.

I kept silent, knowing anymore poking around on this subject would rile him up.

Dean stood up abruptly, no longer leaning on the back of my chair, and took the two steps to where Sam's coat lay over the back of the kitchen chair opposite us. I watched as he pulled out the cell phone from his coat and mess with a few buttons on the phone before putting it back into the coat pocket.

When Dean noticed my curious gaze he just replied with a grumble. "GPS tracking. Just in case."

Assuming it was still a good idea to keep my mouth shut, I did just that. I peered around Dean though, watching Sam methodically take apart the guns in front of him on Bobby's coffee table. His lips were stretched into a straight line and I could make out a slight furrow to his brows. Hopefully he wasn't having a hallucination right now of Satan on the couch with him, but judging by how roughly he was cleaning his guns, my hope was probably in vain.

"Seriously, Dean," Bobby said, stretching his arms behind his head before pushing the chair back and getting up to stretch his legs. "How are you? You alright?"

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Who cares? Don't you think we've got enough on our hands? I'm fine."

"Weren't you pissed at him just a few hours ago for saying the same thing?" Bobby asked him in a voice just above a whisper.

"I'm fine, really," Dean said forcefully.

He made his way over to where Bobby was leaning against the kitchen counter and poured himself the last of the coffee we'd brewed earlier. I was sure it was cold by now.

"Of course," Bobby said, clearly not buying the line. "You just lost one of the best friend's you've ever had, your brother can't figure out what's real, and now we've got leviathan surfing the sewer lines. But yeah I get it, you're fine."

"Good," Dean said, ignoring the fact that Bobby was being sarcastic.

He made his way back over to where I was and seated himself in the chair Bobby had just been in. Setting his coffee mug onto the table, he glanced over at me. He shot me a look when he noticed me staring.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Bobby's right, you know," was all I said.

"Yeah, yeah," Dean said brushing me off.

He pulled the laptop closer to himself but stopped when I placed a hand on his wrist.

"We both know that it's utter horse shit that you aren't fine. If you ever need to talk, you know we're here for you," I told him gently.

He stared at my hand on his wrist until I removed it.

"Can we just focus on the real issue here? I didn't realize tonight was going to be an episode of Dr. Phil," Dean said gruffly, his attention back on the laptop now.

"Shut up," Bobby said in the way he usually responded to Dean's typical remarks. "Idjiot."

I caught a slight grin cross Dean's lips before it vanished. He couldn't be doing too bad then.

"So have you two found anything with all this time you've spent on this thing?" Dean asked as he scanned the laptop's screen.

"Nope, not much yet." I let out an exhausted sigh. "It's frustrating, I don't even really know what we're looking for."

"Why don't you head upstairs and get some sleep?" Dean suggested without taking his eyes off the screen. "I can take it from here."

"Been back for not even ten minutes and you're stealing my job already?" I asked before stifling a yawn.

He looked over at me with his brows raised.

"Alright, I guess I am tired. But you should get some sleep too," I told him.

He only grunted in response.

"Well, goodnight I guess. Wake me if you find anything out. I'll see if I can get Sam to get some sleep for a bit."

Bobby and Dean said their goodnights to me before I made my way over to where Sam was sitting in the other room.

"Hey," I greeted him quietly.

He jolted at the sound of my voice and his head shot up in my direction.

"Hey," he answered slowly, a tight smile on his face.

"You want some help finishing that up?" I asked him.

He glanced down at the gun he was putting back together before shaking his head.

"No, I'm almost done." His eyes averted back to the task he had put in front of himself.

I stood there awkwardly for a second, catching Dean's eye from the other room. He shot me a sympathetic look before returning his attention back to the laptop.

Clearing my throat, I said, "You tired at all? I think I'm going to head up to bed and try to get some sleep."

"Sure, I'll be up in a minute," he answered without taking his eyes off his gun.

Not having anything else to say, I made my way up the stairs and decided to get changed into a pair of sweatpants. Sam opened the door up a few minutes after I had changed, just as I was pulling the sheets back on the bed.

We exchanged small smiles before I crawled under the covers and rolled onto my side. I listened as Sam changed into sweats himself and crossed the room to turn off the lights. The only light now flowed from the window above the bed, dimly lighting Sam up from across the room. He trudged back over to the bed and back out of my line of sight, but I felt the bed shift as he crawled under the covers as well.

Neither of us said anything and the room was silent. I laid there with my eyes open for a bit. I could feel an awkwardness growing in the silence until Sam finally broke it.

"I'm sorry, I'm being distant, I know."

Rolling onto my side, I took in Sam's guilty expression.

"It's just…it's getting harder to keep track of what's real and what isn't. I'm not really sure…what to believe."

Gently I placed a hand against his cheek and offered him a soft smile.

"Sam, _this_ is real."

He smiled sheepishly back before shutting his eyes and drawing me closer to himself. Moving my hand from his face, I cuddled up against him and took in the comfort of the warmth of his body.

"If this isn't real, if it's all in my head," Sam whispered, "I don't know what I'll do when it all goes away."

Opening my eyes, I took in the serene look on his face. It was the first time today that he looked calm. Despite how peaceful he looked, I definitely didn't like the way he was talking. He still wasn't sure who the real hallucination was, if it was us or Lucifer.

I felt a huge knot form in my stomach. When was he going to realize that Lucifer was the hallucination? Was he ever going to?

What if he never did?

My mind went racing back to when I had left the brothers back before Sam had gotten his soul back. I didn't think I could be with him if he turned back into some semblance of that.

"Everything will be alright," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

I had said it more so to myself than to him, but Sam responded with an "I hope so" before he started gently drawing circles onto the bare skin of my shoulder. He only stopped the moment he fell asleep, and soon after I fell asleep too.


	12. Chapter 12

**Figured I'd write up one more for the night. Enjoy!**

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><p>I woke up to the sun shining into my eyes. Squinting, I glanced over at Sam, who was still asleep with an arm thrown around my waist. It looked as if he'd twisted the sheets all around his legs in the middle of the night. I frowned at the sheets that were a mess. Sam must have been having nightmares now if he hadn't been having those before. With a reluctant sigh I pulled myself out of his arm and threw on some jeans before tiptoeing out of the room quietly.<p>

Making my way down the stairs, I found Dean sitting on Bobby's couch with a laptop on the coffee table in front of him.

"Morning," he said automatically without looking up at me.

"Please tell me you slept at some point."

"I might have gotten an hour or two," he answered.

"Good, you're up," Bobby said as he appeared from his study. "You two want to go restock my fridge since you three have seemingly ate everything since you showed up?"

Dean grinned at him. "Growing man's gotta eat."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, sure. You guys find anything yet?" I asked, gesturing to the laptop.

"Nope, not yet," Dean replied before standing up and heading over to his jacket on one of the kitchen chairs.

My bomber jacket was draped across Bobby's recliner and I groggily pulled it on. I didn't bother to zip it, hoping it wasn't too cold outside.

"Ready?" Dean asked, holding the Impala's keys in his hand.

I nodded and followed him out the front door, both of us muttering a "see you later" to Bobby.

"And buy food we can actually eat!" Bobby called out after us.

Dean rolled his eyes as he unlocked the car's doors. I crawled into the passenger seat and buckled myself in as he started her up. The radio was blaring and Dean shot me an apologetic look as he lowered the volume.

"So, how was Sammy doing last night?" Dean asked me as we pulled onto the main road.

I figured being honest would be the best choice of action here. Even if he wouldn't be too pleased that my response wasn't going to be something positive.

"He's still struggling with the hallucinations. I don't know how to get him to believe me that we're the ones who are real." I chewed my lip, realizing just how frustrated I really was too.

"Are you alright?" Dean asked, glancing over at me before looking back at the road.

"Yeah, it's just frustrating. He's been distant lately, which he even mentioned last night. I'm just wondering when he'll get through this, if he ever will. What if it gets worse?"

Dean's mouth drew into a straight line. "We'll figure it out. We always do. He'll be fine." He paused for a moment before adding, "He has to be."

I nodded in agreement. We would get through this, until then, we just had to be strong for Sam. He needed us.

We pulled into a small grocery store not far from Bobby's place. I had been here so many times over the years since I had been hunting with the guys. They always seemed to eat Bobby out of house and home whenever they showed up for more than a few days and then we'd have to go restock for him. Normally I would go with Sam because we always felt guilty. Plus, Dean usually only bought food he wanted if he went by himself.

When we were inside we split up and I made sure Dean followed my instruction so he wouldn't stock up on nasty Hot Pockets or frozen meals. By the time we met back up, he'd picked up the things I'd told him to grab and then some. I noted the 12 pack of beer in the cart but didn't say anything. It would appear that Dean was going to be drinking himself to sleep for a time now.

The drive back to Bobby's was mostly silent, both of us in our own heads worrying. Once we arrived back at his house we didn't waste time pulling out the bags of groceries and making our way inside.

Sam and Bobby were seated in the kitchen, both on their own laptops. It was a nice sight seeing Sam doing something normal for once. We placed our bags down on the counter and began unloading the groceries when Sam finally spoke up.

"It looks like we finally found something," he said, catching the attention of Dean and I.

"About time," Dean muttered.

Sam glanced back down at his laptop screen. "Stockville in north Kansas. Looks like most of a high school swim team got mangled to death in their locker room."

I pulled a face at that. High school athletes?

"The cop talk is kind of garbled about it," Bobby told us. "They're saying some kind of animal did it and whatever it was is about the size of a linebacker."

Dean looked uncertain. He made his way over to Bobby's laptop and leaned over the table to get a better look.

"It's a lead, Dean," Sam assured his brother.

He glanced over at Sam for a moment. "Alright. But if you think you're going out on a hunt-"

Sam cut off his brother. "No, I'm not. But you two are."

My head shot up from pulling a carton of eggs out of a bag. I would never have agreed to having Sam come on a hunt with us in the shape he's in, but part of me was surprised that he didn't try to fight us on it.

"I'm not leaving you here alone during the middle of a psychotic breakdown," Dean told his brother.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Bobby said suddenly. "I can keep an eye on the kid, you two go."

Dean raised an eyebrow at him.

"Go waste your nerves on something useful," Bobby added.

Dean stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, before he uttered out, "Fine." He turned to look at me just as I'd finished unpacking the groceries. "Go get your things, we'll leave right now."

"Alright," I agreed, almost eager to get out on the road. I felt bad about leaving Sam behind but I knew Bobby would keep an eye on him.

It only took me a few minutes to pack up a few of my scattered things into my duffle bag. I was down the stairs meeting up with Dean in no time.

"Ready? Got everything?" Dean asked me.

"Yup, I never really unpack in the first place," I answered.

He glanced between myself and Sam who had just showed up in the room.

"Give me your bag, I'll put it in the car," Dean offered.

I handed him my bag and watched as he exited through the front door. My attention turned to Sam who was standing there with his hands shoved into his jean pockets.

"You going to be alright?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he assured me. "Bobby's here. Just…make sure you and Dean come back in one piece. And keep us filled in."

I nodded. "I will. I'll call you when we check into a motel before we head out to do any investigating."

He smiled before coming over and pulling me into a hug. "Be careful, please. And keep an eye on Dean. He's not as fine as he claims he is, I can tell."

I pulled back from the hug and looked him in the eye. "I will Sam, nothing will happen to us. We'll be back before you know it."

Dean was in the doorway suddenly clearing his throat.

"Guess we should go?" I asked him.

He nodded in response and muttered a 'yes'.

I shot Sam one last smile and called out a goodbye to Bobby before turning and following Dean to the Impala, ready to work this case.


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks for the review SomebodyWhoCares! Found some more free time so I wrote up another chapter!**

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><p>"Special agent Anderson, this is my partner special agent Wallace," Dean introduced us in an authoritative voice.<p>

He flashed his fake FBI badge to the officer who was guarding the crime scene outside of the boy's locker room. Following suit, I flashed my badge to the man as well before stowing it back into my blazer pocket. The officer lifted the yellow crime scene tape and allowed the two of us to duck under.

"Rather blue in here," I commented dryly to Dean as I took in the blue on blue walls of the locker room.

"Minus the red on the walls," he said, referring to the spattered blood.

"Careful where you step," a man called out to us. He noticed the expressions on our face and then said, "Forensics," before flashing his badge that hung around his neck.

I nodded in understanding before taking in the room around us. Other than the fact that everything was blue, including the floor tiles and the lockers themselves, I noted all of the spattered blood on the walls. Three rows of lockers had collapsed, all spotted with blood themselves. I made my way over to investigate them. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though whoever knocked them over like a row of dominoes had to have had some serious strength.

"Agent Wallace?" Dean called out.

My head shot up in his direction. He had wandered over towards the showers and was staring at something smeared against the wall. It looked too dark to have been yet another spatter of blood. As I made my way over, it suddenly hit me what I was staring at. A black smear on the wall, like the black goo that had been dripping out of Castiel when the leviathan had been about ready to burst from him.

Dean noticed the recognition on my face. "Looks like Sam was right," he told me. "This is a lead."

"Guess there's nothing else for us to see here."

He shook his head and gave the black stain one last stern look. We made our way past the forensics team that was surveying the room and ducked under the yellow tape once more.

"So now what?" I asked him as we weaved our way through the off-white halls of the high school.

"I don't know," Dean replied. "But we should fill the others in."

"That cop earlier, he said two of the kids from the swim team stole their parents' car and are missing. Obviously, they weren't capable of that on their own, right? There's no way," I said, thinking out loud. "Which means…these things must take over people's bodies or something."

Dean paused at the main doors to the school, trying to think it over. "It does make sense," he said.

We continued on our way outside, not having to walk far since Dean had pulled the Impala right up in front of the school. Climbing in, I noticed just how dark outside it had gotten. It was a little chilly out too, so I pulled my blazer tighter around myself before buckling up.

Dean started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, switching the radio off before he pulled out onto the main road. I watched as he dug into his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He hit the speed dial for Sam's phone and held it up to his ear, waiting for his brother to answer. It rang for a few moments before he finally did.

"Well you were right about it being a lead," Dean said into the phone. "Black ick like the stuff that was leaking from Cas was on a wall in the locker room."

He paused for a moment on the phone, listening to whatever Sam's response was.

"Cali had an interesting theory. She thinks these things might jump into people, kind of like Eve did. I mean it does make sense, she said two of those swim team kids went missing. Leviathan must have taken them over, made them gank the other kids, and are now about six hours away, according to a state trooper."

I watched as the streetlamps from the town flew by outside my window. I couldn't hear anything but one side of the conversation while Dean was on the phone.

"We're headed back your way, figure we'll just track them from Bobby's," Dean told him. He paused for whatever Sam's response was before he finally asked what I knew the both of us had been wondering. "How're you doing?"

I turned my attention to Dean now, waiting for an answer to that question myself.

"Okay. Well, hang in there, alright? We'll be back in a few hours if we can make it through the night."

Once he hung up the phone I bombarded him with questions.

"How's he doing? Does he sound okay? Did he sound like himself at all?"

Dean shot me a glance before answering, "He said he was doing fine. He sounded tired, though. Speaking of which, I am myself. Didn't get much sleep last night and we've been running around all day."

"You're not thinking about stopping and pulling into a motel are you?" I asked him hesitantly. I just wanted to be back at Bobby's already.

"No, actually, I was wondering if you'd be able to make the drive back. At least for a couple hours."

I stared at Dean in disbelief, my mouth slightly agape.

"You're kidding right?" I asked him.

He shot me a tired grin as he pulled the Impala over to the side of the road and put it in park.

"You're not kidding," I said, becoming a little giddy.

I had never gotten to drive the Impala before.

"You able to stay awake for at least two hours? It's pretty much just straight driving from here once you get onto the interstate, nothing too complicated," Dean told me.

I shook my head excitedly, already unbuckling myself and getting out of the car so we could switch places. He chuckled as we passed each other in front of the car, obviously amused at my excitement.

Sitting down in the driver's seat, I took a second to take the moment in. Dean was smirking at me from the passenger's seat.

"Just don't wreck her, alright?" he said before curling up against the window, his jacket balled into a pillow.

I turned the radio on, lowering the volume quite a bit so I wouldn't disturb him while he tried to sleep. The first station I left it on was playing some popular hip hop song that I'd only heard a couple times.

"Can't believe I'm letting you drive," I heard Dean mutter from beside me.

I only shot the back of him the biggest smile, so thrilled to be behind the wheel of his precious car.

…..

I had taken after Dean with driving, having a bit of a lead foot. Not bothering to wake him since he was snoring so peacefully, I decided to drive us all the way back to Bobby's. It ended up being a five hour drive with my lead foot, even though I had to stop for gas once.

The moment I put the car in park and turned off the engine at Bobby's, Dean jolted awake. He glanced around groggily, eyeing the view outside his window before he noticed the victorious smile on my face.

"Did you drive us all the way back to Bobby's?" he asked me, voice still filled with exhaustion.

"Yup," I admitted proudly. "Figured you could use the rest. And I didn't ruin your baby, she's in one piece still."

As if he didn't believe me, he got out of the car and began checking out the Impala from every angle. I rolled my eyes at him before tossing him the car keys which he caught instinctively.

"I guess you didn't ruin her," he said finally before leading the way into Bobby's.

I noticed Bobby's car wasn't parked out front and I wondered where he could have disappeared to. Which also meant that Sam was inside alone.

"Beer? Yeah good idea," Dean said as soon as he spotted his brother and the beer can in his hand.

Sam didn't even bother stopping him, instead he crossed the distance between us and pulled me into a warm hug.

I giggled into his chest. "Nice to see you too, hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet."

He pulled back and shot me a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I just was worried. I'm glad you're alright."

"What about me?" Dean shot at his brother as he feigned offense.

Sam glanced over his shoulder at him. "Glad you're okay, too, Dean."

"What, no hug for me? C'mon!" Dean teased. He caught my eye and sent me a wink, proving he was in a good mood now that we were back.

"Where's Bobby?" I asked suddenly.

"He rushed off, had to go work a case somewhere," Sam answered. "Why?"

"Well, I figured I'd wait to tell Dean here that I got a phone call while I was driving-"

Both brothers cut me off immediately, speaking at the same time.

"Dean let you drive?!"

"You were on the phone driving?!"

I paused and stared at the two men who both had astonished looks on their faces.

"Yes, he let me drove," I said, answering Sam, and then turned to Dean, "And yes, I answered a call while I was driving your tired ass here. I can multi-task. Anyway, state trooper called and got a location for those two swim kids. Turns out, they're here."

"And you waited now to say something?" Dean shot, looking a little miffed.

"Did you tell Bobby?" Sam asked me.

"No, but according to you he's working his own case right now anyway. Thing is, it doesn't sound like there's just two of these assholes, state trooper said they were caught on camera in a hospital with two others."

"Guess I don't need this," Dean said, putting the opened can of beer on the kitchen table.

"Back on the road it is," I muttered under my breath.

"You know, we could probably use you Sam, since Bobby's gone and all," Dean said suddenly.

Sam shot up straight. "You sure about that? I mean…you know."

"Yeah, you're bonkers. But all we need you to do is keep the engine running in case we need a quick get away," Dean told his brother.

He got halfway to the door before spinning around on his heel, catching Sam off guard as he was throwing his jacket on.

"Don't let Satan change my presets on the stereo," Dean warned him before heading back outside.

Sam and I exchanged a look with each other before making our way out after him.


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks again for the review SomebodyWhoCares, it's nice to see reviews to know you're enjoying the story. Makes me want to write more =). Which is why I got this chapter out! **

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><p>"Just stay put," Dean ordered Sam through the half opened car window.<p>

"I will," Sam replied. "I'll be right here the whole time."

"You better be," Dean warned his brother before turning to face me. "Let's go."

We made our way into the hospital; a nurse greeted us at the entrance. I eyed her suspiciously as we headed past her, wondering if she could be one of those things. She shot the pair of us a curious glance but then went back to her paperwork behind the counter, giving me no reason to find her threatening.

"What's the plan?" I whispered to Dean as we rounded a corner.

"I don't know," he whispered back. "We should probably find Bobby, he's going to be in way over his head if he doesn't know what's going on here."

I nodded in agreement and kept my eyes open for any sign of him.

"Sam said he came for that one sheriff," Dean told me as he spotted an elevator. "Maybe we should find her room?"

"That's a good start…but maybe we should have asked for her room number at the front desk?"

His face fell when he realized I had a point.

"We really shouldn't have come running in here without a plan. I mean, we don't even know how to take these things down," I said, starting to panic. "What are we even going to do when we run into one?"

"Shoot it? Cut it's head off? Set it on fire? Hell, something has to kill it," he answered back, though I could tell through the tone of his voice that he didn't really know what we were going to do.

"We're in over our heads," I pointed out.

"You're not helping."

"Well maybe we should just find Bobby and the sheriff and get out of here," I suggested. "We won't be any help to anyone if we wind up dead."

He stopped and looked back at me. "If you don't want to do this you can go wait with Sam."

The elevator doors opened before I had a chance to respond to him. Bobby was there, his breathing was heavy as if he'd just ran a mile. There was a spooked expression on his face and he was pushing an unconscious man in a wheelchair.

"We need to get out of here," Bobby told us, bursting past the pair of us without a second's hesitation. "Those…things are here. I knocked one out, tried a silver bullet on him but it had no affect. Figure we could use a live one."

"Shit," Dean muttered but then recomposed himself. "How many of them are there?"

"I don't know," Bobby said over his shoulder, "But I'm not interested in finding out at the moment. I'd like to keep all my body parts. You two should do the same. Let's get going."

I grabbed Dean by the hand and dragged him down the hallway after Bobby.

"No need to try to be the hero today," I told him.

We reached the exit and Bobby didn't stop to relax for one second, he raced out of the doors in a hurry. The nurse behind the counter was definitely eyeing us now, but I couldn't have cared less at the moment.

"God damn it!" Dean shouted beside me.

And that's when I noticed that the Impala was missing.

"I told him to stay put!"

"Relax, Dean, maybe he just parked the car somewhere else?" I offered.

"Come on, get in with me. We'll go find him," Bobby said as he lead us over to his car. "Cali, tie him up in case he wakes up, would you?"

I nodded and got to work quickly tying up the unconscious thing that Bobby had tossed into the backseat of his car.

"Shouldn't have thought he'd be okay to sit in a car," Dean scolded himself as he whipped out his cell phone the moment he got into the passenger's seat. "How stupid can I be."

"What are you doing?" I asked glancing up from the knot I was tying.

"I turned the GPS of his phone on the other night, remember? I'll track the son of a bitch that way."

"Hey, relax," I warned him. "It's not like he can help it."

Dean looked up from his cell phone at me, his left brow raised.

"He's struggling, Dean. It's not like he's doing it on purpose."

"And how many more times will we have to play babysitter with him?" Dean growled at me, his eyes narrowed. "How many more times will he just disappear on us because of his crazy hallucinations? What are you going to do when he begins to think you aren't real, huh?"

"Cut it out you two!" Bobby roared from the driver's seat. "For Christ's sake, stop arguing, neither of you are helping the situation. Let's just find your brother before you decide to rip each others throats out, alright?"

Dean glared at me a moment longer before looking down at his cell phone.

"Found him," he grunted. He rattled off the coordinates of some warehouse to Bobby.

I sat back in my seat, grinding my teeth together, frustrated. He was always so quick to anger. It wasn't like Sam could control the hallucinations.

"Here, on the left," Dean said after a few minutes of driving. "There's the Impala."

His door was open before Bobby had even stopped the car. I found myself racing to catch up with him, my chest tightening at the strain.

"Sam?" Dean called out.

The warehouse was poorly lit and it smelled musty. Everywhere I looked it was dirty cement and brick. Our footsteps echoed off the walls, more than once I jumped and glanced over my shoulder only to see Bobby in tow.

"Sam!" Dean shouted once he spotted his brother.

I cringed at the sight of him. He looked a mess, his chest rising and falling rapidly. There was a crazy look in his eyes and his clothing was askew. The most frightening sight was the gun in his unbandaged hand. One of the guns I had watched him relentlessly taking apart and putting back together the other night.

He jolted at the sight of us, immediately drawing his weapon on Dean. Dean threw his hands up automatically.

"Whoa, whoa!" Dean cried out, "What're you doing?!"

"I thought I was with you!" Sam said, his voice wavering.

"Well here I am," Dean responded as calmly as possible.

"You…you drove here. From the hospital. I was _with_ you!"

The gun was still pointed straight at Dean, glinting in the poor light of the empty room. Bobby and I remained at the door, not wanting to spook Sam even further.

"That wasn't me, Sam, but this is me now. Here. I'm Dean. I'm not a crazy hallucination."

"I-I can't know that, you understand right?" Sam stuttered out. Suddenly he glanced to the left of him, staring into an entirely empty space by the wall. "Shut up!" he shouted, aiming his gun in the new direction and pulling the trigger.

The shot burst forward, hitting the wall and making everyone jump at the sound. I felt my heart racing like it was about to jump out of my chest. Bobby and I exchanged worried looks.

This was real bad.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, causing his brother to turn and once again aim the gun at him. "This discussion does not require a weapons discharge!"

Sam took a second to try to catch his breath, slowly lowering the gun in his hand until it was at his side. I was still on edge though, not sure what to expect.

"Look at me," Dean ordered him. "You don't know what's real?"

Sam took in his brother's slowly approaching form before spotting the two of us behind him. He was still breathing heavily, clearly frightened and confused.

Dean's voice caught his attention again.

"Look Sam, I've been to Hell. I know about that kind of torture. It _feels_ different than the pain of this regular, stupid, crappy…'this'." Dean gestured with his hands for emphasis.

"How do you know that for sure?" Sam asked his brother earnestly.

Dean pointed to the bandage on Sam's left hand. "Let me see your hand."

Sam jumped and glanced over his shoulder as if someone behind him had spoken. Dean took a step forward and grabbed his brother's bandaged hand without warning, also grabbing the gun from him at the same time, causing Sam to jump once again at the touch.

"This is real," Dean told him firmly. "Not a year ago, not in Hell—now. I was with you when you cut it; I sewed it up. Look!" Dean squeezed the cut on Sam's hand causing him to wince and pull back in pain, but Dean still held onto his brother's hand. "This is different. Right? It's different from the crap that's tearing through your walnut. _I'm_ different! So is Cali and Bobby. We're real, Sammy, _real_. Right?"

Sam succeeded in pulling his hand back from his brother, his expression no longer so frightened and confused.

"Yeah, I think so," Sam responded shakily.

Something just over Dean's shoulder caused him to jerk his head up abruptly. He squeezed down on the bandage just as Dean had done, his face contorting in pain. It broke my heart to watch this entire scene unfold.

"Sam?" Dean called out.

Sam's head snapped back to Dean, no longer squeezing the damaged hand of his.

"I am your flesh and blood brother. The only one who is legitimately allowed to quick your ass in real time."

"Sam," I called out, stepping forward finally. I could feel the tears brimming in my eyes and I wiped at them quickly when he turned his attention to me. His expression softened a little. "Sammy you got away. We got you out, Sammy. You're really here with us."

His eyes darted to the left of me and I saw him squeeze the bandage again. Blood was seeping up through the once white cloth.

"Believe in that!" Dean said forcefully. "Believe me. You got to believe me. Believe _us_. Make it stone number one and build on that. You understand?"

Sam began nodding his head vigorously, his breathing finally slowing down to a normal rate. "Yeah," he breathed out, "yeah." Sweat was glistening on his brow and neck from the episode.

"I know this isn't the best time to point this out, but we've got a live sucker in my car. We should probably get him back to my place before he wakes up," Bobby said uneasily.

Dean stared at his brother as he answered. "Right. Calista go with Bobby in case that thing wakes up. Sam you're coming with me. We'll regroup at Bobby's."

I noted how out of breath Dean sounded after the whole ordeal so I didn't bother to argue. He pocketed Sam's gun and turned back towards the way we had come in.

"Come on, Sam," I said gently, grabbing his hand. It was cool and clammy to the touch.

He followed me back to the car in a daze, his eyes taking everything in like he was waiting for it all to be another hallucination. I squeezed his good hand reassuringly, causing him to look down at me.

"Hey, remember what Dean just said?"

Sam nodded, took in a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Right. Not a hallucination."

I gave him a weak smile, once again fighting the tears stinging my eyes.

"Not a hallucination," I confirmed.


	15. Chapter 15

"They're at Sioux Falls General Hospital," Bobby told me solemnly as he hung up his cell phone.

"Sioux Falls? The hospital we were just at? With the leviathan?" I asked in a panic. "We have to get them out of there. _Now_."

"Agreed," Bobby told me. "Still can't believe those things burned down my house."

"Thing," I corrected him. "It was probably that damn one you captured. Should have known that wasn't a good idea."

"It would have been if the damned thing hadn't escaped," Bobby said exasperated.

"Apparently rope doesn't hold them either," I muttered. "Did the nurse say why they were in the hospital?"

We had spent all night hanging out in some motel room when we had returned to Bobby's only to find it a smoking pile of garbage. I don't know how many times we had tried calling the guys, on multiple cell phones of theirs, without receiving an answer. I didn't sleep all night, too worried about what had happened.

"Dean's got a broken leg. They were making sure Sam didn't have a concussion, but I guess they're both real banged up."

"Shit."

"Hey, it'll be alright. Let's just get all FBI'd up and get this over with," Bobby said soothingly.

"I'll need to sleep for a week after these last few days," I told him.

"Once we get them out safe and sound you can do all the sleeping you want."

…

"This is Dean's room right here," I said as I spotted room 424.

Bobby and I barged in without hesitation. Dean was lying on the floor in a hospital gown, thankfully not backside up. His face was covered in bruises and his leg was in a cast. He had a deer in the headlights look on his face when he saw that it was Bobby and I standing there.

"You okay?" I asked him cautiously.

"Bobby? Cali? You're alive?" Dean asked in a strange tone.

"Course we are," Bobby responded. "Why are you on the floor?"

Dean blinked a few times as he stared between the two of us. "They gave me morphine. A lot."

Bobby bent down and grabbed Dean by the arms, pulling him up onto the hospital bed. He almost slid off again and Bobby had to push him back upright.

"That damn monster broke my leg," Dean said as if he'd just noticed his leg in a cast now.

I frowned. Hopefully nothing else had happened to the two while they had been here overnight.

"Wait," Dean said as if he was remembering something. He glanced between the two of us. "The house. It was burnt. We…we thought you two were dead."

"Well we ain't yet. Now we need to get you out of here," Bobby said, heading over to the window in the room that overlooked the hallway. He shut the blinds just as an elderly woman was making her way past.

"This place isn't safe," I said as I passed Dean his clothes.

"Where's Sam?" Bobby asked him urgently.

Dean thought for a moment. "Head scan I think."

Bobby turned to me. "Help him get dressed, I'll go get Sam. Meet me at the ambulance dock ASAP."

I nodded. "Let's get you dressed Dean."

"I don't think Sam would be too happy about that," Dean teased, a goofy smile on his face.

I paused as I was untying the top part of his gown. "You weren't kidding about the morphine part."

It was a pain trying to get him dressed, he kept making his usual comments and jokes which would make him laugh. I'd have to continually remind him that we were in a hurry and that now was a time for being serious. And then he would make fun of the look on my face.

"Here, use these," I told him, handing him crutches that were leaning against the wall.

With a little effort he managed them under his arms and stood up. We were heading down the hallway soon, but it was hard. Dean wasn't seeing straight at all and he definitely wasn't used to walking with crutches. I tried to help him the best I could, but there wasn't too much I could do. If I could have carried him out of the hospital I would have at that point.

I was paranoid the closer to the ambulance dock that we got. Any one of these people in the hallway could have been one of those things. And with the time it was taking us, Bobby was surely waiting on us by now.

"Almost there," I told Dean encouragingly as the docking doors came into sight.

I had the faintest feeling that we were being followed but I refused to turn around.

"We need to pick up the pace," I whispered to Dean.

We picked up speed, Dean's breathing labored from the strain. Once outside, I didn't let up on him. I spotted Bobby in an ambulance just as I spotted two doctors tailing us.

"You're going to have to run now," I told him. "I'll hop in the back with Sam, go!"

He hobbled quickly on his crutches towards the passenger door as I opened the back of the ambulance and hopped in. I was not too thrilled to see Sam lying with his eyes closed. Hopefully he was asleep. Dean jumped into the front moments later, and then Bobby was whipping out of there in no time.

"Where to?" I called to Bobby.

"I don't have a clue," he answered.

…..

Weeks later we had ended up in Montana in Rufus' old house. Dean had become unhealthily addicted to some Spanish soap opera since he was stuck to the couch because of his broken leg.

Sam hadn't been too bad in the end, just bruised like no other. Thankfully nothing broken. But it had been a boring couple weeks that had passed seeing as neither of the guys could really go anywhere or do anything.

Sam was still hallucinating seeing Satan from time to time, but he seemed to have a better grip on reality. Bobby and I liked to say that maybe him getting hit in the head as hard as he had had helped him. Whatever it was, we were grateful. He was more himself again.

Bobby hung up the phone he was on and plopped onto a chair by the small, circular table.

"Hunters everywhere running into the same thing we did at that hospital," he said as he popped open a can of beer.

I held in my comment that it was still before six and he shouldn't be drinking, but the fact is, all of them had been day drinking more often.

"Don't forget they tried to kill us at your place," Dean threw out.

"The consensus is that they're like shapeshifters, but they're a lot more into eatin' folk. And the best part—nothing can kill them."

"Fantastic," Dean said sarcastically. "Anything else?"

"They bleed black goo," Bobby said.

"Like that stuff that came out of Cas," Sam piped up.

"What about that doctor eating people?" I asked him curiously.

"I made some calls. Apparently that doctor never showed back up to work."

"What do you think Sammy?" Dean asked from his spot on the couch, his Spanish soap opera now over.

Sam was staring glassy eyed straight ahead at nothing.

"Sammy?" Dean tried again to no avail. "Hey! Sam!"

I noticed Sam squeeze the now healing cut on his hand before looking at his brother. I noticed he did that a lot when he started spacing out. He told me once that the pain made him realize what was real and what wasn't, so I never stopped him when he did it, no matter how painful it looked.

Sam cleared his throat and sat up. "Yeah. I'm right here."

"You okay?" Dean asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered his brother.

Bobby continued to stare at him for a moment. "Good," he said. "Every last bit of info I had burned down so…we got nothin'."

"What about Rufus' books?" Dean suggested.

"All I see is rations and dust," Bobby said. "Doesn't look like he'd been here in years. So now I better go round up my old library."

"Weren't most of those books one of a kind?" I asked Bobby.

"Yup. That's why I stashed copies all over the place."

I smiled at him. "Always a smart man."

"So, two legs," Dean said, leaning over the back of the couch to look at Sam. "We're out of food. You want to go make a run?"

Sam stood up abruptly, clearly itching for a chance to get out. "Yeah." He turned to me. "Wanna come with?"

"I could use some fresh air," I responded, getting up as well and stretching a bit.

"Be careful with her," Dean warned as he tossed Sam the keys off of the coffee table. "And uh, Sam?"

"Yeah?" Sam asked as he grabbed his jacket.

"Pie. Don't forget the pie."

"Obviously," Sam said with a grin.


	16. Chapter 16

**The very long awaited update! College has been kicking my ass so I haven't had much free time this semester, which explains my lack of updates. I haven't given up on this story though! I appreciate the reviews and everyone who is still keeping up with the story after all of this time. Enjoy Chapter 16!**

* * *

><p>"Dean would kill you if he knew you were listening to this in his car," I said grinning at Sam.<p>

He shot me a crooked grin, briefly taking his eyes off of the road, before turning the volume up slightly showing that he didn't care. He had stumbled across some local station that was playing the latest hip hop songs.

"Shouldn't you be into music that's more manly?" I teased him.

"Hey now," Sam said, "you listen to this too."

I turned to him and pointed at myself, saying slowly as if he were a child, "I'm not a manly man."

He chuckled deeply and rolled his eyes at me. When I sat back into my seat I felt his hand ruffling up my hair.

"Sam!"

"You were asking for it," he replied matter-of-factly.

Before I had a chance to retaliate he had pointed out the small convenient store where we had spent the last few weeks stocking up on groceries. As we pulled into the parking lot, a couple was staring at the Impala. It did look out of place next to the older, more beat up looking cars scattered around the lot.

Sam paid no mind to the stares as usual and stepped out, stretching his long legs before heading towards the store. I followed him up to the building, smiling as he held the door open for me. Country music hit my ears the moment I entered and I shot Sam a look. He stifled a laugh as he caught sight of a man behind the counter in a camouflage shirt.

He grabbed a basket and I lead the way down the first aisle, grabbing things from my mental list of what we needed. As I turned around with a couple cans of soup in my hand, I spotted Sam holding a package of Little Debbie snack cakes. He froze when I caught him red-handed with the box before quickly stuffing them into the basket.

"Just like your brother sometimes," I teased him, to which he shot me a sheepish grin.

In another fifteen minutes we had finished our shopping and made our way to the check-out counter. Sam sat the basket down and seemed to have lost his attention on a newspaper next to the counter.

"Hello," the cashier greeted us.

I answered him and began unloading items from the basket. Next to me, Sam reached out and picked up a copy of the paper. I glanced at him, noticing the perplexed look on his face as he read the headline. Craning my neck, I peered over to read it as well. In big bold letters I read 'Ice Pick Killer Strikes Again'. A chill ran down my spine. That didn't sound good.

"Paper too?" the cashier asked in a friendly tone as he caught us reading it.

"Uh," Sam said, jumping slightly at his voice, "Yeah, please."

He handed the man the paper before shooting me a forced smile. Whatever he had read must have sounded important judging by the look on his face. Curiosity was starting to build up inside of me.

Sam pulled his wallet out of his pocket and paid the man for the groceries quickly. I grabbed a few bags and he grabbed the others as we made our way out of the store and back to the Impala. We set the groceries in the back before getting into the car ourselves.

"What was that about?" I asked the moment we had gotten into our seats.

"What?" Sam asked sounding a little distracted.

"Back there, with the paper? What was that? A case?" I pried.

He shot me a glance before shrugging. "Maybe, I don't know. I'll look into it when we get back."

There was a note of finality to his voice that made me a little uneasy and kept me from asking him anything else. He turned the radio back on but he lowered the volume. The seven minutes drive back to Rufus' house was in silence despite the music.

Once we got back we pulled the groceries out of the car and were greeted by Dean. He turned off the TV once we came inside and shot Sam a calculating look.

"Where's Bobby?" Sam asked from the table where he was unpacking some of the bags, entirely oblivious to Dean's scrutinizing looks. "Did he take off?"

"Yeah," Dean answered as he readjusted his position on the couch so he could see his brother a little better.

I started putting away some boxes when Dean finally spoke up again.

"Hey Sam, how're you doing?"

Sam paused for a moment before he glanced at his brother. With a shrug of his shoulders he replied simply, "Fine."

Dean glanced across the room at me briefly and I turned around to avoid being involved in the conversation. I always did my best to steer clear if there was a possibility for a fight between the two.

"You still, you know…" Dean said, trying to grasp the right words.

"Yeah," Sam replied curtly, and then I swore I felt his eyes on me before he said in a softer tone, "I know what you mean. I'm still seeing crap that's not real, but I'm fine. I can tell the difference."

"Think it's getting better?"

Dean's question caught my interest and I glanced up, pausing in my process of throwing old KFC buckets into the trash.

"Honestly," he started before taking a moment to pause as if thinking about how to answer, "I don't know. I just know I'm managing it so don't worry."

Sam turned to face me, his eyes meeting mine. If he was implying that I shouldn't worry about him then he was fooling himself. Until he was no longer hallucinating I was going to be worrying just as much as Dean.

I finished throwing out the garbage when I heard Dean's distressed voice from behind me, breaking the tension of the moment.

"Where's the pie?"

Sam picked up a box he had just unpacked from off the table. A cake covered in white buttercream frosting was sitting inside.

"I got cake. It's close enough," Sam said before handing it to his brother.

Dean sat there open-mouthed looking appalled. "It is not!"

"We'll get it next time, Dean," I promised him.

He shot me a skeptical look before popping the lid off the cake and calling out for someone to get him a fork. I grabbed one and handed it to him, rolling my eyes at how he began digging into the cake.

"What?" he asked with his mouth full.

"Only a few more days of you stuffing your face on that couch," I told him with a grin.

He glanced at his cast as he swallowed what he had been chewing. "I can't wait to get this thing off."

Sam and I made dinner for ourselves; Dean had apparently ate something Bobby had cooked up quick for him before he had left. By the time the two of us had finished cleaning up after ourselves, Dean was passed out on the couch, his mouth partially open as he was snoring.

Glancing at the clock I noticed it was after nine.

"I'm going to grab a shower and go to sleep," I told Sam.

He nodded quietly before grabbing the paper he had bought earlier and sitting back down at the little table.

I hadn't had a chance to shower all day and the hot water felt nice and incredibly relaxing. I took a quick shower and was done in minutes. I dried my hair with a towel before quickly throwing on some shorts and a shirt to sleep in. Combing my hair, I stepped back out into the main room to see Dean still snoring and Sam still staring at the newspaper. When he noticed I was standing there he flung the paper down quickly.

"You coming to bed?" I asked him.

"Not right now."

"You alright?" I asked, noticing the deadpan tone of his voice and the distant look in his eyes.

"Yeah," he replied simply.

I frowned and hesitated a moment before reluctantly turning on my heel and crawling into the bed by myself. It felt colder without Sam next to me.

* * *

><p>"CALISTA!"<p>

Jolting awake at the shout, I sat bolt upright in bed. I threw the covers off of me and jumped to my feet, rushing out into the main room where Dean had just called my name from the couch.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked in a panic.

He looked pissed; his lips were drawn in a tight, straight line as he handed me a piece of paper that looked as if he had just crumpled it in his fist.

Confused, I grabbed the paper and quickly read the scribbled writing that I recognized as Sam's.

"Back in a few days?" I asked aloud. I shot Dean a look.

And then I realized that he had probably never come to bed last night. I raced to the window and pulled the curtain back.

"The Impala is gone," I said in disbelief.

"I'm calling Bobby," Dean said gruffly before grabbing his cell phone off the coffee table in front of him and pushing a few buttons.

I sat down hesitantly in a chair at the table as I watched him.

"Remember that conversation we had yesterday?" Dean shot into the phone, "Well, looks like I was right to be worried." Dean paused, listening to whatever Bobby was saying. "What do I mean? Sam's gone! He took the Impala and disappeared somewhere!" Dean glanced up from the phone to where I was at and mouthed 'start packing'.

Without a second's hesitation I began flying around the house and throwing bags together, pausing for a moment in the room Sam and I had been sharing. Sam's bags were both gone. Thumping around in the other room as Dean moved about brought me back to the present and I continued on with my packing. When I had finished, I grabbed the packed bags and threw them over my shoulders and made my way out into the main room. Dean was standing in the center of the room with a power-saw in his hands.

"Dean!" I shouted with a gasp. "What are you doing?!"

"Getting rid of this cast," he answered.

"You aren't supposed to have it off for another four days!"

He shot me a look and the fight went out of me instantly.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked, dropping all of the duffle bags to the ground and heading over to where he was.

Dean smiled and then glanced down at the cast on his leg. "You're going down," he said to it before turning the saw in his hands on.


	17. Chapter 17

**Figured I'd throw one more update up before I called it a night, so here's chapter 17, enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"I'm driving," Dean said as he eyed up Rufus' beat up Jeep.<p>

I chewed my lip before deciding he wouldn't budge on the issue and threw our bags into the trunk of the car while he started it up.

"Don't know why he couldn't have at least taken this and left my car," Dean mumbled as I crawled into the passenger seat.

"I'm going to try calling him again," I told Dean as I whipped my phone out of my pocket.

The car whipped out onto the main road as my phone continued to ring before it hit Sam's voicemail. I closed my eyes tight in frustration before hanging up and stuffing the phone roughly back into my pocket. Dean's hands gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Now what did you say this article was about?" Dean asked me, his eyes still glued to the road as he sped to the convenient store Sam and I had visited yesterday.

"I never read it," I told him, "but I saw that the title had something to do with some killer. It sounded like it wasn't the first time they had killed either, but I can't remember the exact words."

Dean's lips tightened as he pressed the gas pedal down even further.

The convenient store came into sight within minutes with the crazed way he had been driving. He had barely put the car in park and taken the keys out of the ignition before he was stiffly making his way into the store, not even bothering to wait for me. Briefly I wondered if his leg was bothering him at all or if it was just stiff from lack of use.

Once I got inside I saw him holding a newspaper I assumed was from yesterday by a recycling bin. I didn't like the look on his face as I saw him reading it.

"You mind?" Dean asked, holding up the day old paper to the cashier who shook his head.

Without wasting more time he brushed past me towards the exit, muttering a 'come on' as he did.

"It's not far of a drive," Dean told me as we got back into the car.

He tossed the paper into my lap and I began reading it immediately. Even after I had read the article I had no idea what Dean and Sam had seen in it.

"I'm not sure I understand," I said suddenly.

Dean glanced over at me. "It's just a hunch right now. I'll let you know when I figure it out."

I sighed and decided I wasn't going to get any better of an answer.

* * *

><p>It was nightfall by the time we had reached our destination. We grabbed a motel room quick, assuming it was the same one Sam was at, and changed into our suits, grabbing our fake FBI badges as we headed back out to the Jeep.<p>

Dean drove to the police station in silence, which only added to my discomfort. While Dean seemed to be mildly clued in, I was still at a loss for what was going on and why Sam had left in the middle of the night. I had called him five more times since this morning to no avail.

"This must be it," Dean said gruffly.

He parked the Jeep and was on his feet making his way towards the entrance causing me to jog just to keep up with him. We flashed our badges a few times and ended up finding ourselves in the morgue with the coroner and a dead body on a table. It didn't matter how many times I saw them, they still grossed me out.

"So he didn't do anything to it?" Dean questioned the man curiously.

The coroner eyed him for a moment before telling him no. "He was just interested in the missing piece of the brain."

Recognition seemed to cross Dean's face at this.

"What?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

"The pituitary gland is missing," the coroner clarified for me.

"Son of a bitch," Dean said under his breath just loud enough for me to catch. He glanced back up at the coroner and thanked him for his time before dragging me out of the room.

"What's going on?" I asked him when he had dragged me to the entrance of the station.

"I can't believe him," Dean said rather unhelpfully, still fuming about whatever it was I didn't understand.

"What? Would you tell me what the hell is going on?"

He paused and glanced at me before continuing his way to the car. "It's a kitsune. They're pretty rare. Back in '98 my dad, Sam and I hunted one." He let out a sigh as he unlocked the car. "I need to call Bobby."

I sat patiently listening into the one-sided conversation Dean was having with Bobby as we sat in the police station parking lot. My eyes kept casually scanning our surroundings as if I might spot Sam strolling up any moment.

"Now what?" I asked him once he hung up his phone.

"He's got to stop back at his motel some time," Dean said, "We'll wait for him there."

* * *

><p>Almost three hours had passed in total silence as we waited in the room Sam had checked in to. Dean kept pacing the floor making me feel uneasy. Finally, the sound of the Impala's engine hit our ears. Dean glanced out of the window to check.<p>

"It's him," he told me. "Let me handle this."

I remained seated on the bed as I heard footsteps outside the door. Sam took a few moments to unlock the door before opening it and he jumped in surprise when he saw his brother standing there.

"Hey Sam," Dean said before punching his brother in the face, knocking him back onto the ground.

"Dean!" I shouted.

Jumping up from my place on the bed, I rushed over to where Sam was struggling to get back to his feet. Dean was rubbing the knuckles of his right hand furiously.

"New rule," Dean said sounding as pissed as he had looked all day, "you steal my baby, you get punched."

I shot Dean a look before pulling Sam up to his feet and leading him inside, shutting the door behind us. I walked him over to the bed and sat him down before looking for some ice to wrap in a towel for his face.

"What were you thinking running off like that, Sam?" Dean started. "For all I know Satan could have been calling your plays!"

I gave up on the ice when I found a cold can of beer in the motel refrigerator and handed it to Sam who gingerly pressed it to his temple. He winced at the cold but turned his attention back to his brother.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm fine?" Sam asked him.

"Yeah, you're a real poster boy for mental health, Sam. Do you have any idea of the kind of horrible things I had going on in my head?"

"Dean, I left you a note," Sam said defensively. "There was a job in town."

"A kitsune, yeah," Dean said abruptly.

Sam seemed to bristle at his brother's knowledge of this.

"That doesn't explain why you ignored all of our phone calls," Dean said still rounding on his brother. "You had Calista and I worried as all hell!"

"I wanted to take care of it, and I did," Sam told him.

"Really? Where's the body?" Dean asked skeptically.

Sam hesitated as Dean approached him. "There is no body," he finally answered.

"Why not?"

"Because," Sam said, "I let her go."

I stood up from where I had sat back down on the bed and crossed my arms, staring Sam down now.

"She's gone."

"You what? Why?" Dean asked.

Sam pulled the can from his temple and stared at it for a moment. "It's a long story."

Dean sat down on the bed and gestured for Sam to explain, a stern look was plastered across his face.

Sam began to tell us about the time in '98 when Dean, his dad and himself had been hunting a kitsune and how Sam had come across the daughter of the one they'd been hunting. He hadn't known what she was at first, but they spent some time hanging out together when the girl's mother had showed up. The girl hid Sam in the closet until she got her mother to leave, but she had shown back up and tried to kill Sam. The girl saved his life by killing her mother and Sam let her skip town.

"You never told me that," Dean said after Sam had finished telling his story.

"I never told anyone," Sam admitted. "I mean can you imagine what dad would have done?"

"So you saw the article in the newspaper and you just bolted?" Dean pointed out.

"It was my mess," Sam told him. When he noticed Dean's skeptical look he added, "She killed her own mom, Dean, to save me."

I knew by the look on Dean's face before he even spoke that he wasn't buying it.

"I hear you Sam, I really do, but look at her now. She's dropping bodies, which means we have to drop her. It doesn't matter all of the good she's done in the past. I'm sorry but it's just that simple."

Sam shook his head. "Nothing in our lives is simple," he said in disagreement.

"Look man, I get it. You meet a girl, you feel that spark, there's nothing better, but this freak-"

Sam abruptly got up and grabbed his jacket from the table, cutting Dean off in mid-sentence. My stomach had jumped in my throat at Dean's words and Sam's reaction. Was there more to this than him trying to do the right thing?

"I didn't mean to-" Dean started to say.

"Yeah, you did. I see the way you've been looking at me, like you're waiting for me to go off. I'm not going off. I might be a freak but that's not the same as dangerous."

"I didn't say-"

"It's okay," Sam said, cutting him off again. "say it. I've spent a lot of my life trying to be normal. Come on, I'm not normal. Look at all the crap I've done; look at me now. I'm a Grade A freak. But I'm managing it, and so is she."

"How?" Dean asked.

"She works at a damn funeral home so she doesn't have to kill anyone. She's figured out how to deal."

"Then explain the bodies," Dean shot back.

"Her kid was dying, but she's done. Put either of us in her situation and we'd probably do the same," Sam responded. "You don't trust her, fine, trust me. Please."

Dean paused a moment before answering.

"Okay."

"Seriously?" Sam asked him in near disbelief.

I myself couldn't believe Dean would agree just like, but Sam seemed to think so. Or maybe it was just because he wanted to believe it so he did. Something told me this wasn't the end of this for Dean though.

"Yeah," Dean said in a tone that didn't sound too much like he meant it. Sam still didn't seem to catch it though. "I'm going to head back to the other motel room. And I'll be taking my keys back." He reached over and scooped up the Impala's keys as he glanced at me. "You staying with him tonight?"

I looked over at Sam as he put his jacket back on the table and grabbed the cold can and began icing his lightly bruised face.

"If he wants me to," I answered back.

"Of course I do," Sam told me, and when he caught the look on my face and realization hit him, he sputtered out, "It wasn't like that, I swear."

"I'll leave you two lovebirds alone," Dean said before grabbing his own jacket and making his way to the room we had checked into earlier.

"Are we good?" Sam asked as he tried to catch my eye from across the motel room.

"Yeah, we're good," I said after a moment. "Just, promise you won't run off like that again? You had us worried shitless."

Sam chuckled as he got up and crossed the few paces to where I was standing and I uncrossed my arms from my chest.

"Worried shitless? Sometimes I think you and Dean shouldn't spend so much time alone together," Sam said with a smile as he pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. "You begin to sound like him."

I rolled my eyes before grabbing the can of beer out of his hands and popping it open. Taking a sip, I shot a wink at him before making my way over to sit down at the table. I didn't make it far before I felt the can of beer being pulled out of my hand.

Sam turned me around on the spot, setting the can onto the little table without taking his eyes from mine, and then he pulled my face to his. My hands immediately pulled him closer to me and I led us back towards the bed where I pulled him down on top of me. We were kissing each other hungrily; it had been awhile since he had let himself be like this with me.

His warm hands were pulling my shirt up and over my head in seconds before he tossed it across the room, and then they were roaming my body and tugging at my jeans. Grinning devilishly, I rolled myself on top of him and began unbuttoning his plaid shirt.

"I hope you weren't planning on getting any sleep tonight, Winchester," I said slyly as I undid the final button of his shirt.

Sam discarded the shirt across the room leaving his toned chest visible in the poorly lit space. My hands began working at the zipper of his jeans next before he finally spoke up.

"I'm fine with that."

He shot me a devious grin before our lips crashed together once again.


End file.
